


Grand Theft Smosh

by lamergirl



Category: Smosh, Smosh Games
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Friends With Benefits, Gang Violence, Gangs, Guns, Hi5, More characters will be added as i keep writing, Multi, Murder, Smut, Theft, They are gonna do some bad things people, yep there is gonna be some scattered sexy times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-04-18 16:29:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 36,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14217168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamergirl/pseuds/lamergirl
Summary: How did a group of 6 college dropouts, manage to found one of the most feared gangs in Los Santos? Even they aren't quite sure.





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Blow It Up](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4188096) by [perplexed (orphan_account)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/perplexed). 



> This Ones a little short but length will pick up in chapter 2.

Anthony woke up slowly, feeling the heat of the California sunrise warm his skin from the window next to him. He had a brief moment where he was unsure where he was before he remembered he was in Ian’s van, and they were likely almost to their destination. The time on the dashboard read 6:30 and the time on the sleeping faces in the seats behind him read too damn early.

The six of them were New York-born college dropouts, well some of them had made it to college, who were looking to start a new life together in Los Santos. They had all been incredibly close since high school, Close in more ways than not, and knew this was the best move for them. They had been driving for days, choosing to have shifts on who drove rather than spending money on motels.

This, of course, made them completely sick of the van. They tended to stop at most rest stops they passed, gave them a chance to stretch their legs and stock up on things. No matter how difficult this trip had been, however, none of them regretted it one bit. Each new adventure was thrilling and as they drew nearer to their destination, they were filled with even more hope. They didn’t just think they could make it in Los Santos, they knew they could. As long as they had each other of course.

When Anthony turned to look at Ian, he smiled a little, the man was deep in thought. It took Ian a moment before he noticed Anthony was awake. “morning baby” he said turning back to the road, “there’s a rest stop ahead, want to wake the others? We can all get some breakfast?” Anthony agreed it was a good idea and turned to wake up the four behind them.

“MARI, SOHIN, CORN, JOVEN, WAKE UP!” Anthony yelled, him and Ian giggling as the four jumped awake until Lasercorn instinctively pulled out his knife and Anthony had to quickly explain there was no danger. “We are going to the rest stop, you guys ready?” The sleepy noises of affirmation were satisfactory enough.

When they pulled up to the 711, they all filed out, except for Mari and Lasercorn, as Ian spoke, “Guys we still have a few hours before we get there so get as much stuff as you need.” He pulled out a few 20’s and led the group of 4 into the store. It was completely empty save for a tired looking employee at the counter, which made sense for 6:30 am on a Saturday.

They bought a lot of things. They stocked up on soda for later, cheap breakfast sandwiches for now, and whatever hot food was spinning on their grill. When they bought all the things for themselves as well as the two waiting in the car, they carried it quickly to the car. As they got ready to pile in, Mari and Lasercorn hopped out of the car to greet them, each holding a cheap plastic Halloween mask.

“How much did you spend?” Mari asked Ian.

“Way more than we should have,” Ian said, his grin growing, “Mari, corn, go get back for us.”

They both grinned, pulling the masks over their faces before pulling the guns out of their respective hoodies and running up to the 711. By the time the ran back with a plastic bag full of cash and a few candy bars Mari grabbed on their way out, the rest of the group had settled in and as soon as they got in the van, Anthony, who had taken his turn driving, pulled them out of there, as the groups laughed and whooped. They sped back onto the highway as the hungry group got into their snacks, except for Ian who was counting the money, before putting it with the rest of the stash they had been collecting during their trip. “We got about $90 profit from that” Ian announced, followed by some noises of excitement from the back.

“how much do you think that makes in total?” Anthony asked as Ian added the number to the record he had been keeping in his notes.

“Over 4k,” Ian said as he stuck the stash back in his bag and under the seat.

“More than enough to get us started, right? “Sohinki asked from the background.

“Yeah,” Joven agreed, “but we could always get more”.

“All I know is next time, I call being on the stick-up team,” Sohinki says as they continue to barrel down the highway smiling and laughing at the prospect of having money for once.

All of them had grown up in shitty neighborhoods with shitty families, went to shitty schools and had shitty friends. They had all went through a phase where they thought they were above all the shit that surrounded them, some phases were shorter than others (Lasercorn), but eventually they realized if stealing your old man’s handguns and stealing your cousins van to drive your friends across the country to the crime capital of the US, and stealing every stop along the way, was the best way to finally make something of themselves, they would do it. It was all they knew.

Ian was the one to point out the Welcome to Los Santos sign. They all watched it pass in silence, this was the first day of the rest of their lives. Hopefully, they all had many more.


	2. Starting out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They decide they need to be making more money so they contact an old friend.

They weren’t in love. Sure, they loved each other, wouldn’t let anything happen to one another. But there were no romantic feelings involved. There was… other kinds of feelings. With a group so tight nit, committing crimes together makes it feel like to open up to anyone else could be dangerous. Instead, they find new ways, and body parts, to open up for each other.

Sohinki was thinking of this as he watched Mari’s naked form make its way from the bed next to him to the bathroom, in the dark.

They had only been in Los Santos for a week. They were staying in a 2-bed apartment in a seedy part of town where they could pay rent in cash and be asked no questions. In one of the bedrooms, they managed to squeeze in a second double bed to accommodate everyone without anyone having to sleep on the couch.

Paying for the down payment for the apartment had eaten at their money quite a bit. They had started stealing credit cards to buy things they needed in order to save cash, it was working for now. But the 6 of them knew they couldn’t keep robbing convenience stores for the rest of their lives. They had to find other ways to make money.

Mari and Sohinki were the only ones home that night, the other 4 were doing various things around the city. Mari and Sohinki had stayed home to catch on some sleep but found themselves not quite tired enough and had decided to engage in some tiring activities.

Mari walked back in the room and Sohinki looked up. “I think we should start dealing,” Sohinki said to her, half thinking aloud, as she slipped into bed next to him, allowing him to wrap an arm around her as she curled into him.

“Dealing what? Drugs?” Mari asked.

“No. cards,” Sohinki said, sarcasm dripping from his words.

Mari hit him in response, “I was just clarifying. Even if we all agree, we would need a supplier.”

“Well, the text I got just after the guys left and just before you jumped me,” She hit him again, “was from my friend who used to live out here. He dealt here before he dealt in New York and he said he can put me in contact with his old supplier.”

“We better tell the crew tomorrow. If this works out we could be looking at some steady cash.” Mari said as she finally closed her eyes.

…

“I don’t need any more dealers.” Matt Raub said to the disappointed six.  They had met up in a bar, sitting in the back. Matt had brought his crew and Sohinki had brought his. “However, if you're looking to do other things, I can hook you up”

The grouped took a moment to look at each other before they Anthony finally asked, “what other things?”

“An associate of mine is looking for some muscle. People owe him money, you persuade them to cough it up. I can recommend you. My friend Tim told me you guys were trustworthy, but rough around the edges. Just what my friend needs.” Everyone hesitated, not sure how to proceed. Suddenly Raub saw something interesting. “How about I give you guys a minute to think, while I go check in with my friend over there. Hey Jack!” A man, presumably Jack, who had just walked into the bar, turned sheet white when he saw who had called his name, and immediately turned around and practically ran back out. Two of Matts entourage chased after him, “ill be right back.” Matt Raub said as he went to follow them.

They talked it out for a minute and it seemed the group was split. Lasercorn Mari and Ian seemed to think it was a great Idea. “If this guy likes us and he has friends who need some muscle, we have ourselves a business,” Ian argued.

Whereas the other half wasn’t quite as sure. “We don’t know who this friend is. What if he works with a gang, what if he sends us out to collect from people way out of our skill range? What if this gets us in way in over our heads?” Anthony counters.

In the end, both groups agree on one thing, they should at least talk to the guy, maybe they were building the idea up in their head. It wasn’t like they were incompetent. Mari and Sohinki were skilled martial artists, Ian, Anthony and Lasercorn where pretty good shots and Joven was pretty deadly with a knife.

When Matt Raub walked back in, rubbing the little bit of blood on his fist on his pant leg, they tell him they want to hear what the job would be from his friend. “Great! All I have to say is don’t let down Beretta. It will be a lot harder to get any more help from me if you do.”

The group bristled a little at the thinly concealed threat but Lasercorn answered, “Good thing we won’t.”

…

2 days later, Sohinki and Lasercorn were standing on a deserted street in the middle of the night. While their apartment was, definitely in a shittier area, this place was no Hollywood. The man they were waiting for, went by the name Joe Beretta. He had given them specific instructions that he wouldn’t meet with the whole group, too many people he just met at once, so the other 4 waited in the car a block down, for safety.

A man approached them, wearing the hat he had said he would be wearing, and the two took a deep breath before he stopped in front of them, “Names?” The man asked, looking the two of them up and down.

“Sohinki,” Sohinki gestured toward corn, “Lasercorn”.

He nodded and gestured for the two of them to walk a little further into the alleyway they were standing next to before pulling off his hat and speaking, finally giving them a clear shot of his face, “Before we begin I have one question. Now I’ve heard some gnarly nicknames but I really want to know where Lasercorn comes from.”

Lasercorn chuckled, “when I was 16 I got a tattoo of a unicorn with a laser shooting horn on my back.”

Beretta looked mildly impressed, “That’s something I would like to see.”

“Maybe another time. You had a business proposal for us?” Sohinki said, the small talk made him nervous. He just wanted to get the job and get out of there.

“Right,” The man said clearing his throat, “Your first job if you take it is real simple. Guy owes me 2 grand. I know he has it. He is being selfish with my money. Show up at his place, rough him up, scare the shit outta him then bring me my money. If he still refuses to give you the money search his place and take as much as you find. You get 15% of what you bring back.” Lasercorn and Sohinki looked at each other, they could do that. Scaring people till they forked over money was all they had been doing the last 2 weeks. “We have ourselves a deal?” He asked holding out his right hand.

Sohinki took it, shaking his hand and sealing the deal, “you can count on us.”

The man gave them clear instructions and a piece of paper with the man's name, address and the security code to his building. They had 3 days to meet Joe back in that same place with the cash. They were warned if they got the cash but never showed up, they would lose a lot more than their 15%.

The two said bye to Beretta and got back in the van. They told the 4 everything that had been said and the 6 started planning their first job. As they drove off, they all hoped this was gonna lead them to what they had all wanted.


	3. First Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anthony has some nerves about doing this first job, do his nerves turn out to be justified?

They spent that night in the bedroom with the 2 beds, with a 2 pizza boxes, mapping out a plan.  “Ok so we have to figure out, who’s taking the lead, how we get into his apartment, and how far we go roughing him up before we have to search the apartment for the cash.” Anthony started, taking a bite of the pizza in his hand.

“We could try shooting him in the foot,” Lasercorn said. Everyone gave him a look, so he responded defensively, “What?! It’s a genuine tactic!”

“That would be way too loud dude. We don’t exactly have quiet guns and he lives in a decent part of town. If his neighbors hear the gunshots, the police are gonna be called. Definitely not what we want.” Anthony said to the agreement of everyone else. “I say in terms of violence, we stick with knives or straight up punching him in the face.”

“I call at least getting one punch in!” Mari said, raising her hand like she knew an answer.

“Joe did say he wanted the guy roughed up,” Sohinki said leaning back and taking a bite of his slice of pizza.

“its settled then,” Mari said leaning into Lasercorn’s side on the bed they were sitting on, “I get to punch him in the face,” Mari said with an accomplished look on her face.

“I think we should get a new gun. Something bigger, more threatening.” Ian piped up from his spot on the floor in between the two beds against the wall.

“Any gun is threatening,” Anthony argued, “And shouldn’t we be saving our money”

“We can get one not too expensive, that looks less dingy. We only have two, it makes sense to arm more of us.” Lasercorn agreed

“Since its only one guy, and we are gonna be paid for this job, I say we wait till after the job and then work on arming up” Anthony compromised, to the relative agreement of the whole group.

“Ok so are we done planning? Cause I’m horny.” Mari said and to Lasercorn’s mild surprise, Mari brought up her hand to stroke his thigh, not that he was complaining.

“We still have to figure out what we are gonna do to get into his apartment. He isn’t gonna open his door to 6 tough looking people like ourselves.” Anthony countered.

“Well he is probably a pervert, so ill wear a low cut top and stand in front of the door while you guys stand off to the side and when he opens the door, we will get in by holding two guns to his face.” Mari said simply, not moving her hand from Corn's thigh, “And I can take the lead since ill be walking in first.”

“Good. Now there’s nothing left to plan.” Ian said as he sat up and put a reassuring hand on Anthony’s knee, “Don’t worry dude this is gonna be a piece of cake.”

“Yeah,” Joven agreed, “Scaring people into coughing up money is literally what we have been doing all summer.”

“Soooooooooooooooo, can someone fuck me now?” Mari asked, ruining the nice moment.

“Don’t have to ask me twice.” Lasercorn said Leaning in to make out with Mari. Before long Corn was on top of her and things were getting hot and heavy.

“You guys are gonna push me off the bed!” Sohinki said before Lasercorn pulled him into the fray, breaking the kiss with Mari to kiss him.

“Hoooooot,” Joven said, getting up to join them on that bed, straddling Sohinki.

“Hey, you wanna have some fun too?” Ian said getting close to Anthony.

Anthony got up separating himself from Ian, “I didn’t sleep at all last night I should get some sleep. I'll be in the other bedroom.” Anthony said, getting up and exiting the room. A few half-moaned good nights followed him out of the room.

A moment after Anthony entered the second bedroom and sat down on the bed, Ian walked in. “So how far in your head about this are you?” Ian asked as he sat down next to him.

Anthony smiled a little at that. Even though the entire group was really close, he and Ian had known each other longer. They were just a bit more connected. “I’m deep in my head man. I know its probably gonna go perfect, but my anxiety doesn’t care what I know.”

“You felt this way the first time we held up a store, and before we left New York. Both times, as soon as the thing you were scared of happening was happening, you were fine. Tomorrow your gonna do great.”

“Thanks,” Anthony said leaning in to kiss Ian, more passionately then the others had in the other room.

They were really close.

…

 

The next afternoon the six drove in their van into the nicer side of town. This wasn’t exactly the rich neighborhood, but everyone here was well off enough. They parked in a McDonald's parking lot across the street from the apartment building. When they all got out of the car, Mari, wearing a low-cut top as promised, led the way across the street and into the building.

They walked in an unconscious formation. Mari first, Lasercorn and Joven following and Ian Anthony and Sohinki bringing up the rear. As they enter they punch in the code they were given into the intercom and sure enough the door buzzes and in they go.

Anthony’s nerves resurface as they ride the elevator up and he swallows it down. Ian notices and gives him a reassuring look.

Finally, they find the apartment and the 6 get in their places. Mari stands in front of the door and Lasercorn and Sohinki stand to the right of the door while the other 3 stand to the left. The boys position themselves, so they can’t be seen even when they first open the door.

Mari puts on her best fake smile before finally knocking. The man, Joe had said his name was Tanner Risner, Mumbled an ‘I’m coming!’ as he made his way to the door. The sight of the pretty girl at the door surprised him, but he wasn’t about to let her get away. Without any questions he opened the door and leaned on door frame, clearly trying to flirt already. “Now, what’s a pretty girl like you doing in front of my place?” He says and Lasercorn mimed throwing up at his shameless flirting. At first impression, this man looked about as expected. Greasy hair in need of a cut, stained clothes that didn’t fit, and holes in his socks, visible through his sandals. Attractive.

“Well, I have something for you,” Mari said, fiddling with a strand of her hair, doing a little too well at being sexy and stupid.

“And what would that be?” Tanner asked, clearly confused but not confused enough that he would do anything to put Mari off, in other words, he was being very stupid.

Mari took a step closer to him, he smelled like beer, before responding, “This” And with that Mari punched the man in the face so hard he stumbled back and fell on his ass. The group quickly entered the home after him and Sohinki closed the door behind them locking it.

It took Tanner a moment to get his bearings but as soon as he could he got up and pulled out a butterfly knife but quickly stopped what was about to be an assault on Mari when he noticed the 2 guns being pointed at him by Joven and Lasercorn, not to mention that now he was outnumbered 6-1.

“Drop it now,” Lasercorn said and Tanner did as he was told, still unsteady on his feet with blood on his mouth from a busted lip and possibly busted tooth. Mari picked up the knife he dropped an gave it to Ian who pocketed it.

 “Who the fuck are you?! What the fuck is going on?!” Risner yelled as if suddenly realizing how angry he should be right now.

“I advise you lower your voice. You wouldn’t want your neighbors worrying about you.” Mari said with a thinly concealed threat.

“Who are you???” He said again just as angry, but this time notably quieter.

“Have a seat and I’ll tell you.” Mari said, gesturing toward the small dining table and two chairs behind him.

He backed himself into a seat and Sohinki started looking around. The best word for this apartment was definitely dirty. It was cluttered and there were old food containers and other trash on most surfaces. Combined with his appearance it was no wonder how happily surprised he had been to see a pretty girl knocking on his door.

“We are here because our friend Beretta-” At the name, Tanner turned notably paler and put a hand over his face, clearly realizing what was going on, “Is confused why you haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain yet.” Mari said pacing slowly in front of him, “He wants his money now, and we are here to get it.”

“I told him last week, I don’t have the money yet. I’ll have it by next-” Tanner starts desperately

“He is tired of waiting.” Mari cuts him off, stopping directly in front of him, “Not to mention he has reason to believe, from a reliable source, that you’re lying about not having the money.”

“Now why the hell would I do that? Listen if he really wants his money he has to wait, ill have all of it next week, I just need one more week.” Tanner starts begging again but Mari cuts him off again.

“If your gonna stick to that story then you leave me no choice.” Mari nods at Ian, Anthony and Sohinki who have been waiting by the door and the three split up and start searching the apartment.

“HEY!” Tanner protests, his volume lowering when Lasercorn’s gun gets closer to his face, “You’re not gonna find anything, you’re wasting your time!”

“We aren’t leaving here without at least $2,000 worth of something,” Mari says barely paying him any mind, she had started poking around herself, looking in the kitchen cabinets and drawers. She opened the silverware drawer and noticed a piece of paper under the forks. She pulled it out and Joven noticed tanner get even paler if that was possible.

“what’s this?” Mari said, walking back toward him while unfolding the piece of paper, a smaller slip of paper fell out of her hand and she bent down to pick it up, reading what it was as she stood back up, “A one-way plane ticket to Florida. And look at this, “She says showing Joven the ticket, “It leaves in less than a week. Huh, you wouldn’t by any chance be getting your money from someone in Florida, would you? Lucky for us that Beretta called us in instead of giving this guy another week.”

“Jackpot!” Sohinki said as he, followed by Ian and Anthony, brought in a duffel bag, putting it on the table in front of tanner to show Mari its contents. “Its full of 20’s it has to be at least $20,000”

“I wonder if this was gonna be your carry on to your trip to Florida next week.” She said holding up some of the cash, and to think you could have just given us some of this when we first walked in and we would have already been out of your hair.”

“Cut the bullshit.” Tanner said, a cold expression on his face, “Take the $2,000 and leave.”

At his statement Mari started laughing Sohinki Ian and Anthony joining her, “He really is funny” Mari said putting he cash back in and zipping up the duffel bag before swinging it over her shoulder, “We will be taking all of it. Think of the extra money as a Fee for making us get it ourselves. We will leave the plane ticket though, you look like you can use a vacation.”

Tanner looks like he is about to protest big time when Lasercorn pistol whips him in the back of the head, knocking him out. When everyone looked at him like ‘wtf dude?’ he said, “Now he can’t follow us.”

They left the Plane ticket on the table and left, carefully closing the door behind them and promptly leaving the building. They waited until they were all in the van, the duffel bag on Mari’s lap before they started celebrating.

They had done way better then they expected. They laughed and smiled the whole way home, for the first time since leaving New York, feeling like they knew what they were doing.


	4. Expanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After they start getting regular money, their new boss makes them consider expanding their close-knit group.

The next day Ian, Anthony, and Mari went to go meet up with Joe Beretta, the other three saw no reason to be there and were taking care of other business. The meeting went just as well as expected, Joe was thrilled by the amount of money they brought and promised that he would be in contact with them again soon. They got paid 15% of what they brought which was now $3,000. And with the promise of more, the 3 were on a high the whole way home.

In celebration, the 6 decided to stock up on some things. Anthony insisted they save $1,000 of it but they spent the rest. They got some thin body armor, in this profession protection was key, some more guns, and ammunition.

Things were looking up for the group. They became relatively busy, always getting jobs from Matt Raub or Joe Beretta, or one of their many associates from the burner phone they bought. The jobs they got from Joe, or his friends, were more frequent, and always the same. Somebody owed somebody money, and they had to get the money. Matt Raub however, gave them much less frequent, but much more intense jobs, from stealing from high-tech security places to kidnapping people to bring to him.

Now that they were doing about 2 regular jobs per week and one or two bigger jobs per month the crew was starting to have that steady income they had dreamed about most of their lives. They didn’t have to worry about rent or food, even though there was 6 of them living there. And with Anthony handling the finances, they were saving up some decent money as well.

About 3 months into these new arrangements they received a call from Matt Raub asking to meet with the whole group at the same bar they had met at. Even though they had no reason to fear the man, they had done nothing to even remotely upset him, they all agreed Matt Raub made them all a little uneasy. He was pretty powerful, so they always made an effort to appeal to his good side, meaning, they all got in the van that evening and headed out.

When they arrived they immediately noticed Matt sitting in the same booth they had sat at before. He had with him fewer bodyguards then before, clearly a sign that he trusted them. It put Ian’s mind at ease, surely if they had done something wrong they hadn’t realized, there would be more of his people around.

As the group joined him at the table, they all exchanged pleasantries. Drinks were ordered, and Matt waited until everyone’s drinks were there before starting. “I have a question.” He asked, taking a drink of his whiskey before continuing, “Have you ever thought about expanding your group?”

“Not really,” Ian said truthfully. “We are good friends who are in business together. That’s all we had planned to do.” He continued, wondering where this was going.

“If you stay with just 6 people, you will only ever be able to do the workload of 6 people, therefore only making the money from the workload of 6 people.” Matt Raub said simply. Basically, more people meant more work meaning more money. No one could discount his logic.

“Did you have someone in mind?” Anthony asked, taking a sip of his beer. He was drinking mostly out of politeness, he wanted his mind fully there for this meeting.

“How did you know?” Matt said with a smile at Anthony, “I have 2 associates that have been working with me for about a year before you guys came into town. They used to be my go to muscle. But only being a two-person team, there were some jobs that they were unable to do or that were too hard for them. Those Jobs, are now the jobs I offer you. They had been meaning to expand for a little while now and I wanted to help, but they don’t trust much. I was hoping you would meet with them, size each other up and consider adding them to your group.”

The group was clearly skeptical, and Matt saw this. He responded in kind, “You don’t have to add them or even like them. All I ask is you check them out and seriously consider letting them join. If you don’t mesh, then you’ll never hear about it from me again. Just one evening together and that’s it. As a favor, for me.”

The last line made it clear that they had to agree at least to meet the two. To not do a favor for someone who had been very helpful to them over the last few months wouldn’t go over well. Knowing so, Anthony responded, “What can a few drinks hurt?”

Matt laughed, easing the tension at the table, “Exactly. You’ll meet them here tomorrow. Same time, same place, same table. Their names are Flitz and Wes. I’m sure you’ll get along great.”

…

Joven, the only one who hadn’t taken a single sip of the beer placed in front of him, drove them home

“Do you really think it will be ok if we decide to say no,” Sohinki asked from his position in the far back leaning on Lasercorn next to him.

“He has been pretty easy to read thus far.” Ian answered, “He makes it pretty clear when disagreeing with him isn’t an option. It shouldn’t be a big deal when we say no, after meeting them.”

“When?” Mari asked from her spot next to Anthony.

“You guys weren’t seriously considering adding anyone to our group, were you? We don’t know anything about these guys. Not to mention, we are more than just a group of friends. We can’t exactly just welcome two random guys into that.” Ian argued.

“We wouldn’t have to welcome them into the personal side of things.” Anthony countered, “If they really are as talented as Matt said, it would be stupid not to consider letting them join on few of the bigger missions.”

“We don’t have to decide any of this now. Especially still knowing nothing about them. We might immediately dislike them.” Joven countered from behind the wheel.

“or, though unlikely, immediately take a liking to them. We don’t need to decide anything now.” Mari concluded for him. The group seemed on an agreement about waiting until they actually met the men.

…

The next night, they were the first ones at the bar. They took their seats at the table on the side where Matt Raub and his crew usually sat, with full view of the door, and waited. They didn’t have to wait long. After being at the table for at least 5 minutes, in walked 2 men wearing suits. One with light skin and chin length silver hair and the other, chocolate with not a hair on his head. The two walked confidently up to the table, upon reaching the table they promptly introduced themselves. “I’m Wesley, but you can call me Wes.” Said the silver-haired one.

“I’m Flitz.” Said the other one simply. Everyone got up to shake their hands and introduce themselves. Once they were properly introduced they all sat down and got right to business.

“So how long have you been, in the business?” Ian asked though he couldn’t quite tell you what the business exactly was if you paid him.

Wes seemed to understand what he meant though. “Formally, for a year, With matt. Informally about 4 years. He had just graduated high school and I didn’t really want to have to deal with it, so I dropped out and we moved in together. The ‘business’, was a way for us to make money with our ‘lack of skills.’” Wes answered clearly making fun of Ian calling it ‘the business’. Earning a polite laugh from the group. It becomes apparent that Wes wants to continue but isn’t sure how. When he finally speaks, there’s a bit of uncertainty in his voice, “Flitz and I still live together and are very close. Very close. It was a problem for a lot of the people we talked to in the past, so we just wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem with you guys.”

“I don’t understand why that would be a problem, for anyone,” Anthony responded genuinely confused as for why it was a big deal.

Wes looks as if he is about to clarify but Flitz cuts him off. “We aren’t straight. In fact, we’re together and we are tryna make sure you’re not homophobic, like too many people in this ‘business’.” Flitz says, straight to the point, making his partner blush.

The confusion and tension at the table washed away with laughter at Flitz’s statement. “I have a secret for you,” Ian said to the two, who were now the ones looking confused, “you guys saying that, means no one at this table is straight.” Finally understanding the joke, the two men join in the laughter.

After the initial conversation, they fall into an easy rhythm. They order drinks and get to know each other, and they are hitting it off right away. They quickly found out that what Matt Raub had described as an unwillingness to trust was actually an intolerance for homophobia, and now they were willing to trust and be friendly, not to a stupid degree, of course, they weren’t spilling family secrets the first time they met someone.

Anthony, being the DD of the night, stuck with water and therefore was the only one asking all the serious questions about their skills and their pasts. They learned that the two had met as young teenagers in Karate class and while Flitz had gone on to become a black belt, Wes found himself quitting to join the football team. Seeing as he dropped out of high school, he had tried to get back into it and wasn’t too far from joining Flitz in black belt status.

After that discussion, a significantly drunker Lasercorn decides to bring out the big guns. “if you were stuck on a deserted island, what would you bring? HEY STOP LAUGHING IT’S A LEGITIMATE QUESTION!”

Long story short the night went well. As they went to go their separate ways, Anthony got the guys number and said they would contact them in the near future to take the two on some test runs. He loaded the car with his drunken partners and they all waved out the windows as they drove past.

Even in the morning with their wicked hangovers, everyone agreed that trying them out wouldn’t be so bad, maybe in more ways than one.


	5. New Spaces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are running out of room for the growing group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a few naughty things. it's not quite a full sex scene but that will come up soon ;)  
> It's also kinda short. sorry :(

Lasercorn was sitting alone on the couch. Everyone else was out. Sohinki Wes and Flitz Had gone to collect some stolen goods for Matt Raub, Mari and Joven were tracking down some guy for Joe and Ian and Anthony were off doing something for a surprise they hadn’t told the gang yet.

Nowadays they were taking jobs like crazy, Joe seemed to always be giving someone new their number. It was making them more than decent money, especially now that they had Flitz and Wes. They had started off having the two help out on bigger missions as sort of the ones who watched out. As the trust in them grew, they started sending them out on their own missions. They had fit so perfectly into this group that it felt they had been there all along.

The only downside to all this was they the only space they had was still the shitty 2-bedroom apartment. It barely fit the original 6 and now that Flitz and Wes were often over, it was officially no longer functional.

Even though they had enough money the group wasn’t quite ready to move out yet. Flitz and Wes had their own apartment, smaller than theirs, and they were managing. What they needed was a business space. A place where they could prepare for all of their illegal activities, without worrying about neighbors, a place where they could fit comfortably and possibly even have more people join them.

Ian and Anthony, the unspoken leaders of the group, had said they would start looking into it. They couldn’t exactly just rent a floor in an office building, obviously. For now, they were making do. They would push back the couch and maybe 3 could sit on the couch while the others sat on the floor when everyone was there.

Corn was awoken from his thoughts when he heard the door open and Sohinki walked in. “How did it go? Where’s Wes and Flitz?” Lasercorn questioned from the couch. Instead of answering right away, Sohinki locked the door then made a beeline for Lasercorn, as soon as he reaches him he straddles his lap, his hands on the sides of Lasercorn’s head and his kisses him hard

Lasercorn gets over the shock real fast, his hands going to Sohinki’s hips, pulling the other man impossibly closer. The kiss is hot and rough, Sohinki kept biting at Lasercorn’s lips, causing corn to make some little noises that were driving Sohinki crazy.

When they pull apart to catch their breath, Sohinki finally answers Lasercorn’s questions, “It went great, we dropped off the loot with Matt and Wes and Flitz went back to their place.” Sohinki said breathlessly.

“What got you so worked up?” Lasercorn asks, his mouth going to nibble at the soft flesh behind Sohinki’s ear.

“W-Wes and Flitz,” He answered, finding it hard to focus on speaking, “I’m t-telling you they are doing this shit on purpose.”

Lasercorn stopped his assault on Sohinki’s neck, giving him a moment to form a coherent thought, “What did they do?”

“First of all, the sexual tension when any of us are in the room with either of them has been fucking high as fuck ever since we told them about our arrangement. Not to mention that the whole way driving back, they sat in the back seat together and fucking made out. Wes kept making these little noises, like fuck! Really fucking hot. I spent the better part of the ride home, thinking about getting home to you.” Sohinki said leaning in to sink his teeth into the spot where Lasercorn’s neck joined with his shoulder, causing a full-bodied moan and for corn Grind his hips up against Sohinki’s.

They stayed like that for a little while, moaning into each other’s mouths and against their necks as they ground against one another.

Lasercorn’s hands are between them and he’s unbuttoning Sohinki’s fly when they hear a Someone clear their throat. They both start, and look up to see Ian, Flitz, and Wes standing in the entrance. The two had been so wrapped up they hadn’t even heard them come in. Wes was blushing furiously, Flitz wasn’t looking at them and Ian had a knowing smirk on his face. “What are you guys doing here?” Sohinki said breathlessly.

“Well I live here,” Ian said, a little bit of laughter in his voice, “and we are having a meeting in a few minutes, so I brought them here.”

“You guys should like come back in 20 minutes,” Lasercorn said his hands back on Sohinki’s hips.

“Mari and Joven are almost here and Anthony is just grabbing something he forgot in the car.” Ian said crossing his arms, “The meeting is starting in 5.”

“Well,” Sohinki said standing up from Lasercorn’s lap, legs a little shaky, while pulling Corn after him, “We might be a little late to the meeting.” He said as he pulled Lasercorn toward the bedroom with the one bed.

“At least keep it down in there!” Ian called after them.

“No promises!” Lasercorn called back as they closed the door.

…

When everyone is finally in the Livingroom, two of them with noticeable sex hair, Ian starts explaining what’s going on.

“First of all, I want to thank Sohinki and Lasercorn for finally joining us.” Ian said, applauding with the rest of the group as the two from their spot on the couch, Sohinki sitting in Corn’s lap, Flipped them all off. “Now down to business, as I’m sure you all can tell, we are a little tight in the space department.  Seeing as we don’t exactly have ‘moving into a big house’ money, me and Anthony figured out the next best thing. We're gonna rent out a small warehouse.”

“That’s where we can store all our stuff and have all our meetings and just, in general, hang out. And even though it is small, in terms of warehouses, it’s perfect for what we need. We talked to the owner, who is a very don’t-ask-don’t-tell kind of guy. He said as long as we didn’t knock down walls and pay on time we could do whatever the fuck we wanted.” Anthony added from his spot in the middle of the floor.

Everyone agrees what a good idea this was and the next day they all go with Ian and Anthony to go check out the place. It's clear immediately why it was so cheap. The paint was chipping of the walls that weren’t cement, the cement ground was stained and one of the few doors in the place was falling off its hinges.

“All it needs is a little TLC.” Mari said as she walked around, “some sanding, a few new coats of paint, maybe a rug. This will be perfect.”

“Don’t forget, a new door” Joven said, trying to prop back up the door that had fallen off in his hand.

The group laughed a little before Mari responded, “Yes and a new door.”


	6. More Inclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get the warehouse set up and Wes finally addresses the sexual tension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Warning: This chapter contains sexy stuff
> 
> 2\. I'm so sorry this chapter is so late, I was dealing with medical problems but I'm feeling better and I suddenly got a second wind and finished this chapter as well as most of the next one so yay!
> 
> 3\. sorry, this one is so short, I promise the next one will be much longer. this one is sort of a filler.

They spent the next few days fixing up the place. Whoever wasn’t busy was at the new warehouse. Painting, cleaning, adding new furniture and installing the new door. Lasercorn put most of his focus on the room they were gonna use as an armory. Mari and Wes worked together to repaint the walls of all the side rooms and the main room. Ian and Anthony got new furniture and Flitz and Joven helped them place it. Before they knew it, they had the space mostly finished. There was one more side room that they didn’t know what to do with quite yet. It was Joven who suggested that they use it as a medical room and stock up on medical supplies.

They had had a few minor injuries so far and the first 2 times they had been woefully unprepared. When Sohinki brought Mari home with a gash in her arm Mari had to sit on the couch holding a bunch of bloody paper towels to her arm as Joven drove to the only drugstore open at 3 in the morning to get some stuff to clean her up. After that, they had gotten a first aid kit, but the kit wasn’t quite that helpful when Ian badly hurt his ankle. It wasn’t like they could go to the hospital when they got seriously hurt, doctors asked too many questions, police would be called it would become a whole thing.

Joven decided to dedicate his free time to learning as much first aid as he could. He read books and websites and studied his heart out, hoping to god that if anything major happened it would be something Joven could help with.

…

Wes was alone in the warehouse. Well, he wasn’t completely alone, Mari was taking a nap on the mattress on the floor in the side room they had deemed the break room. Wes had had a very interesting conversation with Flitz earlier and Wes wanted nothing more than to experience the result of it. He knew Lasercorn would be back to the warehouse soon, so Wes busied himself with cleaning up his equipment.

Wes was washing some dried blood off his pocket knife when Lasercorn walked in. “Hey,” Corn said as he walked past Wes to the fridge to put away something he had bought.

“Hey!” Wes said Putting his knife on the side to dry, turning around to face him, “You know I had a really interesting conversation with Flitz this morning while he and Anthony were staking out that dude’s apartment.” Wes said casually.

Lasercorn closed the fridge and turned to look at Wes suspiciously, “What about?”

“about us no longer being exclusive,” Wes said passingly with a little grin on his face.

Lasercorn was definitely surprised. “Where did that come from?” He asked an incredulous look on his face.

“I know me and Flitz are not the only ones that noticed the sexual tension.” Wes started, walking over to Lasercorn as he continued. “We love each other a lot and while that is just for the two of us, we both agreed that there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of fun between friends.” Wes kept walking causing Lasercorn to back up a step into the counter. Wes put both hands on either side of Lasercorn leaning on the counter, leveling his face with the shorter man's face.

Wes had more he could say but Lasercorn had already gotten the gist. He grabbed Wes by the back of the neck and kissed him. It started off slow, but picked up quickly, the two fighting for dominance.

Lasercorn squeaked a little when Wes picked him up to sit on the counter they had been pressed against. The new position allowed Lasercorn to wrap his legs around Wes’s waist, pulling him closer. They pulled away after a moment to catch their breath. Not wasting a second, shirts were removed, and Wes was kissing at Lasercorn’s neck.

Neither man felt the need to go slow. Soon enough Corn was shifting his hips, so the taller man could remove his pants and boxers in one move. Wes leaned back in to kiss Lasercorn’s neck, biting and sucking at the sensitive spots as Wes’s hand started to stroke his dick in between them. “Fuck….” Lasercorn moans out, tangling his hand in Wes’s hair.

“Shhhhhh” Wes mumbles against Corn’s neck, “Mari’s asleep in the next room, you don’t wanna wake her.”

Lasercorn didn’t give a shit if he woke up Mari, Wes’s hand was too good to focus on anything else.  And before he knew it, Wes’s mouth was on him and any semblance of being quiet was thrown out the window. Both of his hands were on Wes’s head pulling and pushing and from the noises, the other boy was making, corn could tell he was enjoying himself as well. He came with a string full of curses. Wes rose up and made a show of swallowing before kissing him again.

Before Lasercorn could make a move to return the favor, they heard the door open and turned to see Mari, standing in the doorway as she stretched her arms over her head. “As hot as those noises were, and as much as I want to know why Wes was doing anyone but Flitz, if you don’t get your bare ass off the clean counter were Joven is gonna cook us dinner, I’m gonna stick the cleaning solution, up it.”

They both laughed but Corn quickly got down when Mari made some threatening movements with the Clorox spray bottle. They finished up in the break room and that afternoon as everyone was eating Joven’s pasta, in the new space, Flitz and Wes shared their new news with the group and no one was upset by this. Wes is 99% sure he saw Sohinki bite his lip.

He Lasercorn ate his pasta leaning against Flitz with his feet on Ian’s lap. He could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next one should be up by tomorrow so look out for that!


	7. Things not going to plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They need to call in someone new when a serious injury makes them realize how little prepared they are for an emergency.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some violence in this so yeah.  
> also, things get a little serious...  
> aLSO THANKF FOR 200 HITS LIKE WOW

It was supposed to be a normal job. A junkie hadn’t been paying up and had moved across town in hopes of running away from their problems. Mari and Sohinki had gone on their own, and Joe had made this out to be such an easy job that he said they could probably be successful without any guns. They weren’t that stupid though, none of them left the house without one.

They had entered ok, backed the junkie into a wall. He even pointed to an envelope in the middle of the room that Mari opened to find half the money they had been looking for, but as Sohinki moved the gun in his hand closer to the man, demanding where the rest was, things turned nasty.

The junkie had been underestimated.  

He kicked Sohinki in the nuts so fast, catching him off guard, snatching the gun from his hand and knocking him the fuck out with the hilt. Mari had just enough time to pull out her gun then dash behind the counter.

"You're already dead, might as well come out." He said. She didn't hear him moving toward her, so she took a deep breath, removed the safety and peeked out far enough to aim for his head. SHe had a moment of blinding pain where, as she was knocked onto her back, she realized he had shot her too. As quickly as possible she pulled herself off the floor and behind the counter before she heard the thump of the man falling to the floor. When she peeked over the counter and saw him slumped over against the wall, a bullet in his forehead, she finally took a breath.

She took a moment to assess herself. He had gotten her in the shoulder. Not good, but no vital organs so it could be much worse. She painfully got up and assessed the room. A dead body, unconscious friend, and searing pain in her shoulder. Just great. She wasn’t quite sure what to do, she just knew that they had to leave.

The blood that was staining her shirt called her to action before she joined Sohinki on the floor. She held some paper towels from the junkie’s bathroom to her arm and stole one of his hoodies to keep it in place while also hiding the wound. She carefully and painfully searched the place and took some things that should be enough value to make up for the missing money then carefully wiped down everything she and Sohin had touched, grabbed his gun and stepped around the dead body to try and rouse her friend. He finally woke, and though he was super disoriented they walked out of the building together, her supporting him on her good side.

As soon as they get in the car, neither were in good enough condition to drive so Mari called Flitz, already feeling light-headed from the loss of blood she was experiencing. She had called Flitz because she knew he would have been calm enough to handle the situation without freaking out. Sure enough, quicker than expected, Flitz arrived in a cab and quickly got into the car to check out his injured team. Sohinki definitely had a concussion but they could handle that. The bullet in Mari’s shoulder is what rightfully concerned all of them the most. Sohinki sat with her in the back and helped her apply pressure as they started driving past the police cars get back to their area. At least they had gotten out of there in time.

While Flitz was driving, his phone rings. He pulls out his phone puts it on speaker. “Where are you? I thought you said you would be home like 20 minutes ago.” They hear Wes say grainily over the phone.

“Mari got shot in the shoulder and Sohinki has a concussion. They called me to come get them, we are heading to the warehouse now.” Flitz says. That’s one thing Mari admired about him, he didn’t beat around the bush, didn’t sugar coat things if it wasn’t necessary.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Wes boomed over the phone, “Does anybody else know?”

“No they just called me and I was alone” Flits responded, driving as fast as he could without arousing suspicion.

“Ok, I’m gonna call everyone and meet you at the warehouse. You know what I'll call Damien too. We need him.” With that Wes hung up and Flitz dropped his phone in the passenger seat.

“Who the fuck is Damien?” Mari asked weakly from her position in the back seat.

“Old buddy of ours. He is a doctor. Like the whole in school for a butt ton of time Ph.D. doctor.”

“How do you know we can trust him?” Sohinki says critically.

“We trust him with our lives and we all know that Joven isn’t prepared to help with this.” Flitz says, glancing back at Sohin, “We need him.”

No one argued after that. It was so unfortunate that this guy had lived on the opposite side of town because it took them nearly 45 minutes before they got there. Flitz straight up carried Mari into the Warehouse, Sohinki stumbling behind them. They were greeted by everyone who immediately surrounded them, until an unfamiliar face shooed them all away.

“Give her some space," Damien said, shooing everyone away to make room for Flitz to follow him. "Bring her into the medical room please.” He leads Flitz into the room with Mari. Someone grabs Sohinki and gets him some ice for his head and sits him on the couch. Inside the room, Flitz and Damien removed the hoodie she had thrown on and Damien used a pair of scissors to cut open the shoulder of the shirt, so they wouldn’t have to jar her anymore. Mari noted, as Damien took a look at the wound, that had thankfully stopped bleeding at the moment, that there was some medical stuff on the table she didn’t remember being in the room before. The doctor had brought some of his own stuff.

He laid her down on the table in the center of the room, allowing her to get as comfortable as she could before turning to the people that had been hovering around the entrance. “I need some warm water and clean cloths.”  Wes ran off to get what he asked for, “a plastic baggie,” Ian took that task, “ And some whisky or vodka” Damien finished, looking expectantly at joven.

“What do you need that for?” Joven questioned, clearly not that comfortable with a man he had just met ordering them all around.

“Because its gonna hurt a lot and that’s the best I can do to numb the pain.” Damien says impatiently, turning back to Mari.

“Don’t you think that’s a super old-fashioned method? I mean a real doctor-“Joven started.

“Would use the expertise of an anesthesiologist or a localized numbing agent in a sterilized syringe. Two things they would notice if I took from my hospital. Do you have any of those lying around?” Damien asked cutting him off, not looking up from where he had put on gloves and started to clean around the wound. After a moment joven asked if tequila would work and then went off to retrieve it.

Damien saying it was gonna hurt a lot was the understatement of the year. As Damien removed the bullet from her arm, albeit rather quickly, she squeezed the hell out of Flitz hand while biting down hard on some washcloth. The whole thing was over rather quickly and soon enough Damien was stitching her up with expert fingers and bandaging her now bleeding again wound.

She remembered glancing at the bullet on the counter in the baggie and wondering vaguely if she could keep it.

Mari heard afterward that he had checked out Sohinki and he would be fine, he just needed to stay under a watchful eye for the next few days.

Mari woke up later in their apartment with the bullet in the bag on the night table next to her. She smiled. maybe she had said it out loud. She was glad that she had a little token from that night from hell. She hoped they burned the hoodie though. If they didn't, she would.

…

Being out of commission really sucked ass. She spent most of her time watching tv in the bedroom with the one bed trying not to go crazy. She was beginning to like Damien quite a bit though. He visited every day and the first day he came back he had brought her some super strong pain meds that made her bed rest more enjoyable.

A week after the incident Mari joined everyone in the warehouse, Damien had brought her a sling for protecting her arm while it was still healing. Now that she was on slightly less strong pain meds, to her disappointment, she joined them all for a meeting on Damien.

Apparently, Wes and Flitz had been advocating he become a central member of their group. While the group agreed he could be trust worthy, they weren’t as sure about making him an active member.

“We don’t get bullet wounds every day. What is he gonna do for the missions that turn out routine?” Joven questioned now, his arms crossed, “are we gonna pay him to sit around the warehouse?”

“He may not be a big fighter, but he can hold his own in a fight. I met him in Karate class, he might not be me, but he knows his stuff.” Flitz argued, “Also he could be lots of roles in various heists, getaway driver, lookout, decoy. You can’t deny that having an actual Medical professional on our team is gonna be good for the future.”

“I like him.” Mari piped in, continuing when she saw the death glare from joven, “What? I do. He isn’t a pain in the ass and he isn’t put off with the fact that I had to kill a guy. Joven only doesn’t want him because he was the one training to be the resident doctor of the group.”

“Excuse me, are you implying that I’m jealous?” Joven asked, very offended.

“You are Jealous, which is stupid. Its not your fault you didn’t go to medical school. He likely saved my life and he could teach you a lot of things about medical stuff that you won’t be able to learn from Wikipedia articles.” Mari responded.

The conversation was not over then but they saw no need to rush, even though they hadn’t formally made him a member of the group, on his last visit to check on Mari, he made it clear that if they needed anything else to let him know. Mari kept his number promising they would.

…

It took a surprisingly long time for it to pick up that Mari had straight up shot someone in the head. But when it finally spread, it spread fast. They got tons of calls from some of their regular clients asking if they were taking hits now. This was another thing that was a little divisive amongst the group. No one was against it, but it made Anthony and joven a bit uneasy. “When we start straight up killing people, people are gonna start killing us.” Joven argued and Anthony agreed.

One thing no one could disagree on however, was just how much money people were offering for it. It would be their most profitable service by far. With the amount of people who wanted others dead in this city, it could get them quite up there.

Lasercorn and Sohinki decide they are gonna go on the first hit mission. There was a bit of arguing from Mari who wanted to go, but she still didn’t have full range of motion in her arm, so it was out of the question. They had upgraded some of their supplies, so the pair grabbed a bag with their new sniper rifle in it, on their way out.

Just like before anything big, Anthony had a bad feeling about this, but he shoved it down. It was gonna be fine, just like all the other new things they had done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guys when you comment, you literally motivate me to continue writing so if you read and you're like, "They don't care about this stupid nice thing I have to say" trust me I DO.  
> Also, don't be afraid to leave criticism. I know I'm not perfect. HELP ME IMPROVE!


	8. First hit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first hit could have gone better, and Joven is still bitter that Damien has more medical knowledge then him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some violence and stuff

The mission was simple. They were after someone who apparently was a cheating on his wife. He was to be attending a party and their job was to make sure he didn’t leave. They had a picture of him as well as a detailed description of what he would be wearing that evening. This was gonna go great.

Sohinki was going to stay in the car, not their usual van but a car they had stolen in order to do jobs undetected, conveniently parked in view of the backyard where the party would be taking place. Lasercorn was to snipe from the roof. As corn walked out onto the roof, he didn’t let the beautiful nighttime city view distract him. He was focused. He called Sohinki with his Bluetooth headphones before he started setting up.

“In position?” Sohin’s voice boomed into corns ears as he rushed to lower the volume.

“Almost.” He replied settling himself against the low wall facing the backyard, His gun ready. “OK, I’m ready.”

Then it was the waiting game. The party started just as they were setting up and 30 minutes later it still hadn’t moved outside. They had both witnessed a few people take small walks through the backyard before going in, but none had been the victim.

While Sohinki stayed focused, the picture in his hand, keeping a heavy eye out, Corn grew bored. He started using his scope to peek in the windows of the building to the left of him. He saw a couple arguing, moved to the next window to see someone drinking wine, and finally, he saw a very stupid lady who was undressing in front of the open window.

Before Lasercorn could turn away, or at least that’s what he told the group later, Sohinki’s voice brought him back to reality. “Hey! Are you listening? I said that’s him.”

He quickly trained his scope back on the backyard and sure enough, 3 people were standing by the pool. It was the man standing between 2 ladies. From his view, Corn didn’t think he could be doing anything but flirting. Which was funny, because him cheating on his wife was why they were there in the first place. He aimed for the man's head. “Got the shot.”

“Take it,” Sohinki said, starting the engine of the car.

It was a clean shot through the head. Sohinki watched the man fall as he drove away and listened to the screams as the party goers all rushed out to see what had happened. They had done their job, now they had to get out of there. He drove to the back entrance of the building and didn’t have to wait long before the emergency exit swung open and corn walked casually, but quickly toward the car. He threw the bag in the back seat and got in the passenger seat. He closed the door and just as Sohinki started to drive off they heard, “POLICE! STOP RIGHT THERE!”

Before either of them could freak out Sohinki took the fuck off. “someone must have seen me pull the hell out of there the minute they got shot.” Sohinki said as the sirens behind him made him go even faster if that was possible.

“Its ok we have the back up plan. Just don’t miss the turn for the garage” Corn said, putting his hoodie on. He focused on emptying out the glove box and stuffing the contents in the duffel bag with the rifle which was now on his lap. The trunk was empty already, so they wouldn’t leave any evidence when they dumped the car. “do you think they saw my face?” he said wincing when he heard a gun shot bounce off the side of the car.

“No, it was too dark, and you didn’t even face their direction. You might wanna take off the orange hoodie though.” He said, as he turned them on to another street before turning into the parking garage. Just at a glance of the plates, the attendant let them through with a smile and they drove through the garage, all the way to the far back end. The sirens faded as they drove. They didn’t worry about the police arriving on foot however. The attendant would likely tell them where exits were, maybe let one of them look at the camera’s and they would have people waiting at all public exits. They probably thought they had the pair cornered.

 The minute the car stopped, both men were out of the car and bolting for the locked employee’s door they had the key to.  As the door clicked behind them they didn’t bother to look back as they bolted through the small office like room and out the back exit, a small black Subaru waiting for them with an Uber sticker on the front, with Ian at the wheel of course. The walked casually toward the car, Corn threw the bag and his hoodie in the trunk and the two got in the back.

“So you two fucked up a little now.” Ian said as he drove off the side street they had been on and turned onto the main one, passing the police cars that were watching the exits.

“There must have been some police at the party. They got there way too fucking fast.” Sohinki said, leaning on corns shoulder with relief that it was all over.

“Yeah, it was kind of ridiculous. The police got there in 5 minutes and then quickly found the exact side street me and Sohin were about to escape from. It was so weird.”

“Good thing we set up this plan then, right?” Ian said, “We were gonna dump that car anyway, so no harm done.”

The two then told him the whole story as they drove back to their part of town. And predictively, both Sohin and Ian knew that corn had fully intended to peep on the lady in the window.

…

The success on the hit was worth celebrating, even with their minor complications. So, the whole group and Damien (Mari had called him), sat in the warehouse at 1 in the morning drinking beer and eating pizza and having an overall good time. It was around 3 when they started getting sentimental. Everyone was various stages of drunk, evident by the beer bottles littering the floor and most of the group were laying on each other across the 3 couches.

“You know what I realized this morning?” Mari said, lifting her head up from its spot on Flitz’s lap, “We’ve been here for over 6 months.”

“Wow. It feels like we moved in last week.” Anthony said from his spot across Ian and Lasercorn’s laps.

“Does that mean we’ve only known each other like 4 months?” Wes asked from his spot on the other side of Flitz, his arms around the Sohinki in his lap.

“Nooooooooo it feels like we’ve known you guys forever,” Joven slurs from his spot on the floor leaning on Lasercorn’s legs.

“Well while you guys over here have all these feelings,” Damien said in mock disgust, “I’m gonna go take a wiz”

“Have fun!” Mari calls after him.

“You know I will.” He said shooting her a wink.

She waited until he was down the hall and presumably in the bathroom before continuing. “We should ask Damien to be in our group now. Its perfect timing.”

“Whooooah hold on a second,” Joven said interrupting the sounds of approval, “When exactly did we agree on Damien being a formal member of our group? We’ve known him for, what, 2 weeks now and suddenly he is gonna join us?”

“Wes and Flitz joined us after knowing them for a week.” Ian piped up.

“But we tested them out for like a month after that.” Joven argued.

“And we can do the same thing with Damien.” Sohinki said, “Listen you’re the only one here who has the problem here. I say majority wins on this vote.”

Joven grumbled but before he could argue anymore, Damien came back. “So, what did I miss?” He said taking his spot back on the couch.

Damien was more than happy to join them. As Wes had warned, Damien wasn’t much for killing or any of the violent stuff, but he was up for all the supportive rolls. Even though Joven didn’t admit it out loud, he knew it was a good idea to have a Trained doctor on the team, but it didn’t mean he had to like it.

Damien was currently working at a hospital, but he was one of the bigger doctors there, he got his doctorate at 20 and was working toward starting his own practice. He didn’t work too long hours and by working there he had access to plenty of supplies should they need it.

And boy were they gonna need it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are so sweet in the comments it melts my cold heart I cant even.


	9. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They talk about their shitty childhoods and Damien gets a call he was worried he never would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this chapter took so long, I had to think a lot about what I wanted for their backstories. Some of them might be fleshed out further in the future so yeah.

They were celebrating being in the city for a year the only way they seemed to know how. Sprawled out in the warehouse with tons of takeout and way more alcohol then the group could even drink. Joe Beretta even joined them, the man had become a friend over the past year and they had to include him. They even invited Matt Raub, but he respectfully declined.

Damien had smoothly integrated into the group, though he wasn’t there as often as everyone else, he pulled his weight. Even though Joven had reluctantly warmed up to him, it was obvious he had a little bit of jealousy for the doctor, but at least he hid it better than before.

They spent the evening exchanging stories from when they were growing up. “I lived in a tiny ass studio, with my parents my aunt and uncle and their son. We were like the poorest you can be in New York without being homeless. All 4 adults worked shitty jobs and we barely had any money for food, the shitty school lunch they served was all I ate on the weekdays.” Joven said, starting the obviously depressing conversation.

“That sucks man.” Sohinki said empathetically, “I mean we had it pretty bad too, but my parents made decent money with all the drugs they were dealing. The biggest problem was they didn’t give a shit about me. As soon as I was old enough to feed myself, they kept the fridge stocked enough that I could have something to eat and that’s about it. I only had the baby toys they had gotten from a baby shower when my mom was pregnant with me until I started pickpocketing at 12 so I could get some stuff I would actually enjoy. When I left, I didn’t even tell them I was going, and honestly, they probably didn’t even notice.”

“I was also poor as shit, But I was a smart kid. My parents used my intelligence anyway they could to benefit them. They entered me I spelling bees and chess tournaments, anything with a cash prize or something they could sell.” Mari said, playing with her hair as she spoke, “I remember they made me enter this like math competition in 6th grade and the prize was a brand-new bike. I actually tried real hard cause I wanted that bike and my parents said I could keep this one. Well I won and I started riding my new bike, but then my mother spent the rent money on lottery tickets and my bike had to be sold so we wouldn’t get evicted. Again.”

“We were actually decent when it came to money. Mom was a manager at a Macy’s and Dad worked at the local gym. The only problem is he didn’t like using the punching bags at his job, he thought it was more fun to start beating up his son at age 8. I know he only did it because I couldn’t really fight back, because when I was 16 and I turned around and knocked his head off his shoulders, he started keeping his hands to himself.” Lasercorn said simply, keeping his face emotionless. Mari put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

It went on like that for a while. Even though Ian, Anthony, Joven, Lasercorn, Sohinki, and Mari all knew each other’s stories, but it had been a while since anyone had really talked about or even thought about their pasts. All 6 of them had moved into a tiny apartment on all their part-time jobs when they turned 18. It was also interesting to learn stuff about their newer members. Like how Flitz’s mother had tried her best to raise 6 kids by herself, or how Wes’s parents went to jail for killing someone when he was 16 and so he ran away to live with Flitz, rather than go in the system. Damien had his father die and his mom seriously handicapped by a horrible car crash when he was 11 and spent the rest of his childhood taking care of his mom and his alcoholic aunt that was supposed to be taking care of him. He still visited them often, but he paid a nurse to take care of them.

Ian and Anthony briefly told about them about their homophobic parents, who went to the same church, kicked them out and how they had hopped houses between their friends till they graduated high school.

Once everyone had told their story, Ian realized that Joe had been quiet. “Do you have a fucked up childhood you want to share joe?”

“Well,” He said, sitting up from his reclined position on the couch, “I didn’t really have too shitty of a childhood. We were upper-middle-class, my parents cared, they were pretty strict though. It was a process to get them to let me do anything after 8 on a weekend. So, I rebelled so hard, that they shipped me away to boarding school. That’s where I met Matt and well the rest is history.”

“Wow, you’ve really known matt that long?” Anthony asked.

“He tried to sell me weed on my first day in the dorm.” Joe laughed. “I would say me, and matt are the lucky ones in this business. All of us are fucked up, but we fucked ourselves up rather than our situation or parents doing it for us.”

They take a moment to realize how deep that is before Damien’s phone rings and ruins it.  “Sorry it's my doorman, let me see what he wants.” Damien stands up and answers it, walking a few steps away from the group. “What’s going on Sunny?”

“Hey, are you home?” Sunny asked from across the line.

“No, sorry. Why, did my package come?”

“No, you actually have somebody here for you.”

“I wasn’t expecting anybody to stop by today.”

“That’s the thing, he says he is an old friend, and he is hoping you can help him out.”

Damien, slightly confused responds, “What’s his name?”

Damien hears sunny ask the man to repeat his name then returns to the line a moment later. “He says his name is Shayne Topp.”

Damien freezes, he starts to immediately walk further away from the group as he responds, “Give him my number, and tell him to call me.” He hung up and continued down the hallway closing the medical room door behind him, waiting for his phone to ring. When it finally did he answered the phone quickly, “What the hell dude? You drop off the grid for almost 2 years and suddenly you find my apartment and just show up???”

“I’m so sorry Damien. A lot of shit went down, I had to go into hiding, it was a lot. I can explain details later but, right now I really need your help.” He heard Shayne say desperately from the other side.

Damien sighed, “What do you need me for.”

“Well, the shit I was in, couldn’t be ended without a little violence. And me and my friends are pretty worse for wear. You’re a doctor and I don’t know who else to go to. The hospital would ask too many questions, plus one of my friends are on the wanted list they would get picked up so quick.”

“so after 2 years, you want me to drop everything again to help you out.”

“Listen we used to do a lot for each other, if just helping me out isn’t enough maybe this could be me calling in a favor?”

Damien sighed again, he was angry at Shayne, but he knew he couldn’t say no, no matter how angry he was. “How bad is everyone? And how many people are we talking?”

“5 including me. Me and Courtney just have some bad bruises and scrapes, Olivia had a bullet go through her foot. Keith has a bullet in his thigh, and Noah has a bullet in his stomach.” Shayne said quickly, relief clear in his voice.

Damien paused, that was a lot of people, the only place he could treat all of them, inconspicuously and safely, was… in the warehouse. “I’m gonna call you right back ok? I’m gonna try and help but I need to see something first.”

Everyone knew something was up when Damien went to talk in private, and it was all but confirmed when he came out of the room and walked up to the group. “Where’s Joe?” He starts, noticing one less person on the couches.

“He had to run. What’s up? What was all that about?” Mari asked sitting up fully from her position leaning on Wes.

Damien took a deep breath before beginning. “So… This friend of mine, that I’ve known since I was like born, that I trust more than anything, really needs my help. He and his friends are injured, and they need me like now to help, but the only place where I have the supplies and equipment to help with the extent of their injuries, is here.” Before Damien even finished his last sentence, he see’s Joven shaking his head and Ian and Anthony look incredulously at each other, even Mari looks doubtful, “Listen, I know this is our secret base, but I trust him, I do. And if he trusts them, I trust them too.”

“There is no way we are going to just give out the address to our secret base to people that we never met,” Joven says and most people make noises of agreement.

“Maybe we could bring some of the stuff to your apartment?” Mari suggested.

“But I can’t be sure exactly what I need until I see them, and if we forget something, someone could die.” Damien said, his voice growing more desperate, “There has to be some way I can bring them here.”

“There’s no way-” Joven starts.

“Wait!” Wes says interrupting Joven, “He could ask them to meet him a few blocks away, he could meet them there on foot, blindfold them then drive them back here, making a few loops to throw them off the trail. That way he can help them here and they won’t know where they are if we decide they aren’t trustworthy.” This idea seems to appease everyone, and Damien immediately goes to call Shayne and give him the address of the McDonalds 3 blocks down. Shayne agrees to the plan if it means Damien can help and says he will let him know when he is almost there. Joven and Wes start preparing the medical room according to Damien’s instructions, pulling out things he knows they are gonna need.

Lasercorn prepares by sticking a gun under his shirt and under the waistband of his pants, when Mari shoots him a look he says, “Just in case they aren’t as trustworthy as Damien says.”

Finally, Damien goes off to meet up with them, some cloths in his bag as blindfolds. He is standing in front of the McDonalds when a black car with tinted windows pulls up in front of him, and out of the driver’s seat steps Shayne. He knows they don’t have time for a mushy reunion, so he gives him a quick hug, with an unspoken promise that they will catch up later.

Damien had already explained the needed precautions while on the phone with Shayne and he helps him tie the blindfolds around everyone’s eyes. They don’t bother with the most injured one, Damien is reminded his name is Noah, his eyes are mostly closed, and he seems too weak to really focus on the street signs passing by anyway. Courtney seems the most, opposed to the idea but squeezes in the back and allows Shayne to tie the cloth around her eyes. With Noah laying across the three in the back's laps, one of them clutching a stained cloth to his abdomen, everyone was ready. Damien quickly tied the cloth around Shayne’s head who was in the passenger seat and quickly drove them to the warehouse, he takes them on one loop as promised but doesn’t want to waste more time.

Before long they finally get into the garage. It's show time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's that for a cliffhanger?


	10. What happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney is highly volatile and Shayne tells Damien why he was gone for 2 years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's taking so long in between chapters. I only write when I'm feeling inspired so I don't get burnt out and days of inspiration the past week has been waning. But don't worry I will finish this story, even if it takes a few extra days in between chapters.

Damien and Shayne entered in front of the group, Damien leading and Shayne carrying Noah. Courtney was closely followed behind, helping Keith and Olivia walk, though for Olivia it was more of a hop. Having abandoned the blindfolds in the car, the group looked around as they walked in, Courtney giving suspicious looks at the people that had been chilling on the couch that had popped up the moment they had walked in to help.

Damien started giving orders right away. Noah was put on the table in the medical room and Joven was ordered to try and clean him up a little and check out best he could (Since he was the one in the group that was closest to having a degree with Damien taking him under his wing), while Damien took a quick look at Olivia and Keith. Olivia seemed to be doing not bad, Damien would have to Sew up a tendon and then the exterior hole, overall not that bad only takes a minute. Keith, however, is still bleeding and still has a bullet in his thigh. Damien takes a look in at Noah before working on Keith, he however only removes the bullet and then kicks Joven out of the medical room to sew it shut for him.

When Damien got started on Noah, he shut the door. The only way they had any idea what was happening was the occasional Shayne running in and out to grab something for Damien. This was clearly distressing the three who sat on one of the couches close together. Olivia’s foot was elevated on the coffee table with a fresh bandage, while Keith had his leg over the side that Joven was finishing up.

Joven had no idea what to say, they hadn’t really been introduced, it was a blur of orders when they walked in. “Hi, by the way, my names Joven.” He finally said as he finished the last stitch.

The man whose leg he had just been sewing smiled a little bit, “I’m Keith.” He said, clearly trying to downplay the pain he was in.

“I’m Olivia.” Said the girl who had the hole in her foot.

The third girl just looked at him, clearly not comfortable with the whole situation, not wanting to be here let alone exchange pleasantries. After a long moment, Olivia elbows her in the side and she finally speaks. “Courtney.” She said gruffly before looking at Olivia as if to say, ‘happy now?’.

As Joven started to bandage Keith’s thigh, he continued. “So, are you guys from around here?”

“This isn’t a bar.” Courtney speaks up before Olivia can respond, “You don’t have to say shit to us so you get a big tip, we weren’t gonna tip you anyway.” She finished sharply, clearly not in the mood for small talk.

“You don’t need to be a dick,” Keith says turning to Courtney, she looks like she is gonna say something, but he shoots her another look and she folds her arms, not saying anything. Finally, he turns back to Joven, “We all grew up in this city, but we’ve been traveling around the last 2 years.”

They have a relatively pleasant conversation, entirely because of boredom. Joven explains a bunch of them had moved there from New York. They exchange stories and the conversation goes on for a little while, before Courtney, who had been silent the entire time interrupts something Olivia had been saying. “This is a fucking gang den,” Courtney said, sitting ramrod straight, suddenly more distressed than before.

“I mean we aren’t really a-” Joven tried to argue but Courtney wasn’t having it.

“I just watched a man with orange hair, walk into a room, with guns all over the fucking walls! So unless this is a police headquarters, I would say you’re a bunch of organized criminals, meaning WE ARE IN A FUCKING GANG HEADQUARTERS!”

Everyone who had sort of melted into the background looked over at the scene she was causing. Ian stepped toward her hands up, “Listen, its ok- “

“BACK THE FUCK UP” Courtney said, drawing a gun from her pants, causing everyone in the room to draw their guns except for Joven, Keith, and Olivia. Now that everyone was pointing their guns at her, she looked as if she was going to yell about how she was right, when suddenly-

“Courtney” Everyone turned to see Shayne who had emerged from the medical room, closed the door behind him and made his way swiftly toward her. He stops next to her, putting a calming hand on her shoulder.

She just looked at him, anger clear on her face, her gun never pointing away from Ian, “You led us right into another fucking gang.” She doesn’t yell this time, but the anger, and what seemed like hurt, was clear in her voice.

“If I remember, you led us into the last one,” Shayne says calmly, his other hand going to rest on the wrist on her hand that was holding the gun, and she made no move to stop him.

“We aren’t safe here. We need to leave.” Courtney says desperately, the anger seems to be gone from her voice almost, just fear left.

“Whether or not they are a gang, the fact that Damien is working with them, already tells me that they can’t be anywhere near as bad as the guys that got us into this mess. And either way, shooting one of them, is not gonna make us any safer.” He gently uses his hand to make her lower hers. She lets him take the gun from her, and once she is unarmed, Ian motions for everyone to put their guns away too, and everyone follows, though some more reluctantly (some being Lasercorn).

“as long as we don’t pull our guns on them, we are going to be fine,” Shayne says, handing Courtney’s gun to Olivia, who puts it in between her and Keith. “I was coming out here to tell you guys about Noah.”

Courtney looks at him, worry clear on her features. “How is he?”

Now that the threat seemed to have past, everyone faded back into their side conversations, a few still casting wary looks at Courtney every once and a while. “He was super lucky. The worst of it is a broken rib. Damien is fixing up the damage right now. Barring any infection that might happen, he should be fine.”

Courtney sighs with relief so big she has to sit down next to Olivia, the other girl putting a reassuring hand on her knee. “As for you guys, Damien said you guys will probably want these pain meds.”

Olivia and Keith nod eagerly, and Shayne hands Keith a water bottle and a pill, which he takes before handing the water bottle to Olivia who takes her pill. When Shayne tries to give Courtney a pill, she shakes her head. “I don’t need it.”

“I saw that huge bruise on your ribs, you have got to be in a lot of pain,” Shayne said softly still holding out the pill.

“I would rather be in pain than have my ability to defend myself be compromised.” She said simply.

“Can I at least get you some regular strength pain medicine?” Shayne bargained.

“Please.” She finally agreed, “And some ice”

With that, things were a little calmer. Shayne got the things for Courtney, and though, she still seemed on edge, she at least didn’t try and pull a gun out on someone again. Around three in the morning, a bunch of the group disbanded, heading home to get some sleep, leaving Damien, Joven, Mari, and Ian, with the newcomers. When Damien came out of the room with Shayne, saying everything went well the three seemed to melt into each other. The exhaustion of the day, as well as the drowsiness from the painkillers, had taken its toll on all of them. Damien brought them into the break room where Keith and Olivia laid down on the mattress in there to get some sleep, while Courtney sat in the armchair and said she would keep an eye on them (Shayne found her asleep in there 10 minutes later).

Damien’s few remaining members knew that some serious stuff was about to go down and all dispersed throughout the warehouse, leaving Damien and Shayne on the couch. Now that they were finally alone Damien leaned back and looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

“It’s a long story and I don’t want to get really into it right now but basically a real bad guy with a lot of pull was after us. Courtney killed his brother, out of self-defense mind you. That day we were supposed to hang out I never showed up because on my way-out Courtney showed up with Noah, Keith, and Olivia, all of them clearly just came from a fight saying someone was after Courtney and they needed my help. The plan was to go underground for a little while and make sure Courtney was safe then come back and tell you what happened, but I got an email, who even emails anymore right, and the email said that he knew who was helping her and if we handed her over we would be fine but if we didn’t, he would kill our loved ones. We took it with a grain of salt, but when we arrived at Keith’s brother's house, the place we were gonna hide Courtney for the time being, we found him dead on the porch. That’s when it became much more serious. We spent the last two years trying not to get shot, while also trying to find this guy who wanted us dead so bad.” Shayne paused a minute, moving his fingers through his hair before continuing, “I was worried that if I contacted you in any way you would be the one dead. Even worse I worried he would find you anyway and the next email would be a picture of your body.” He pauses again, this time, looking back up at Damien, “We finally found him last week and spent that long trying to get to him when we did we killed him, and everyone with him. And honestly, I’m surprised we came out all alive. It was 5 against 30. Good thing we are all good shots. The minute we left the place, all bleeding from various places, some worse than others, we had no idea where to go. Keith is wanted in several states and all of us wouldn’t be able to say how we got the gun wounds without revealing too much so we were stuck. That’s when I realized that we were 10 minutes away from your old apartment building and I prayed that you still lived there and lo and behold you did.”

Having been quiet the whole time, Damien finally spoke, “Wow. That’s a lot. I get why you didn’t try and let me know what was going on, but I still missed you. I’m glad you're ok.” After another moment he continued, “I think I get why your friend was freaking out now.”

Shayne nodded, “The past 2 years definitely taught us to not trust any kind of organized group of criminals. Not to mention Courtney is insanely protective as it is. I’m lucky she trusts me so much or she might have opened fire, forcing one of you guys to kill her. All of us have known each other for a while, but we really grew close this past 2 years.” He leaned back into the sofa, looking back up at Damien, “I think it's your turn to explain what you’ve been doing. I honestly don’t think I ever expected you to be a part of a gang.”

Damien told him everything, from making friends with Wes and Flitz to them calling him in to save Mari. He explained how the group took him in and made him apart of what was more like a family than a gang.

The two boys catch up for more than an hour, talking about everything the other missed, before Damien, noticing the big bags under Shayne’s eyes, finally asks the question he should have asked a few hours ago, “How long has it been since you’ve slept?”

“maybe 3 days?” Shayne answers honestly, looking as if he wasn’t sure if it had been longer or not.

“Dude you need to go to bed,” Damien said

“alright but let's just check on Noah first ok?”

Damien obliges and the two check on Noah, who is still asleep and who’s vitals are good. Satisfied, Shayne goes into the break room and slides into bed behind Olivia, carefully so as not to wake her and nearly promptly falls asleep.

Damien quietly closes the door behind him and lays down on the couch. With a quick glance, he saw it was 6 am. Wow, that had been quite a night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No cliffhanger this time :)


	11. Staying Longer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney proves increasingly difficult and Mari finds out why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is kinda short but things are going to pick up real soon.

That afternoon, while all the new arrivals are eating, Damien explains that he doesn’t think its smart to let them leave until the stitches are mostly healed. No one argues until he says this could take 2 weeks. Of course, the only person arguing is Courtney.

“We are staying here 3 days. Max.” She says, not even bothering to look up from her sandwich.

“Oh, so you’re going to leave Noah here?” Damien says, already sure he knows how she is gonna respond.

“Like hell, we would leave him here.” Courtney said, looking at him incredulously, “He’s coming with us.”

“As someone who is trying to keep your friend alive, I’m not going to let that happen,” Damien says firmly.

“Good thing it's not your choice.” She says putting her sandwich down.

“Courtney, it's not that big of a deal. I still feel pretty weak as it is.” Noah chimed in from the couch he was now stretched across comfortably.

“We can take care of you just fine,” Courtney said, her voice a little softer.

“Courtney staying here is going to be ok-” Shayne reasoned, noticing that things were only escalating.

Courtney stood up, pointing accusingly at Shayne, “YOU KNOW HOW UNCOMFORTABLE I AM BEING HERE!”

“FOR ONCE THIS ISNT ABOUT YOU!” Shayne’s words echoed throughout the room and were met with an eerie silence. Courtney has a clearly hurt look on her face, but she isn’t arguing because she knows he’s right. Shayne continued, much softer, “if your so uncomfortable, you can leave, but we are going to stay here with Noah until the doctor says its safe. He is still at risk and the last thing we need is him collapsing while we are who knows where and having no one to help him.”

Courtney didn’t respond. She simply picked up her sandwich and walked out of the room and into the garage. Keith looks like he is going to go after her, but Shayne shakes his head, “She doesn’t have the keys, she isn’t going anywhere, just let her calm down.”

Courtney reluctantly stays with them. Despite her being extremely against the situation, after a few days, Courtney calms down. She doesn’t talk much or seem happy in any way but stops jumping Every time the garage opens and yelling at people, and that’s a start. Everyone else actually enjoys their stay. Noah gets on really well with Sohinki and Wes, Keith spends a lot of time with Flitz, Shayne and Damien are practically inseparable, and Mari and Olivia are fast friends.

Nearing the end of the two weeks, Courtney’s stand-offish attitude starts feeling less angry and more sad. It becomes very prevalent when in the middle of dinner, everyone sitting on the couches and floor, eating take-out Chinese food, Courtney suddenly gets up and walks out of the room. Mari makes a mental decision and gets up to the surprise of some of the group and follows after her.

When Mari steps into the garage, Courtney is sitting on the front hood of her car, eating her fried rice slowly. “Are you ok?” Mari asks softly, closing the door behind her.

“I’m fine. You can go back and tell everyone that.” Courtney responds sharply, not looking up from her food. Mari didn’t move. She stood next to the door, waiting for the other girl to realize she wasn’t going anywhere. “I said you can go.” Courtney tries again, this time looks up and see’s Mari’s face. They maintain eye contact for a moment, Courtney’s expression goes softer and she looks back down at her food.

Mari tries again, “Are you ok?”

“No,” Courtney says simply, not really eating her food anymore, more playing with it.

“Want to talk about it?”

Courtney sighs and Mari can see she is trying to decide if Mari actually wants the answer. “Olivia wants to stay with you guys. So, does Keith and Noah. You know Shayne doesn’t want to leave Damien again. At the beginning of this whole ordeal we talked about possibly moving to New York and now, Shayne started looking for apartments near here.”

“Let me guess,” Mari said, walking closer to her, “You still don’t feel comfortable here.”

“It's not that.” Courtney half whines, clearly searching for the right words, “I don’t hate all of you guys anymore, but I still hate gangs. Being in a group of violent people promotes people to be violent to us, especially other gangs. I don’t hate the idea of settling down here and joining forces with you guys, but I can't help but be scared of the future.” Mari doesn’t respond to that, she just waits, and sure enough, she continued, “When I was 15 my older sister was dating this kid who was in one, and she got targeted by their rival. They shot her drive-by style while the two of us were walking home from school. Those kinds of things are hard to prevent, people hating you for no reason.”

“If they decide to stay, are you going to leave?” Mari asks quietly.

“No. I love them too much to leave them behind. I thought about it, but I would be too worried about them since I wouldn’t be around to at least try and protect them. I’m also pretty sure they already decided, they just haven’t made anything official because they want me to be on their side.” She paused for a moment, still playing with her food, “I think they are tired of waiting though. I don’t know if you heard, but I heard Shayne talking to Damien about us possibly moving down the block, he had found a nice 3 bedroom for us.”

So that’s why she left the room, Mari realized. “You should talk to them about this.”

“I don’t want to start an argument. Also, I’m being selfish, and I know that’s pretty much what they're going to say to me if I bring it up. It won’t be so bad staying here. You guys don’t totally suck.” Courtney said with a small smirk.

Mari chuckled lightly, “Thanks. Same to you.”

After a short, comfortable silence, Courtney hopped off the hood of the car and walked past Mari, half whispering a ‘thanks’ as they passed, and she went back past the door. The two of them reentered the room and sat back down in their spots.

Mari noticed Courtney making a little bit more of an effort to join the conversation, it was a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over 400 hits holy fuck <3


	12. Moving on up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian reflects on the year and Lasercorn is drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have had this chapter out way sooner, but my birthday was this past Friday and I was wrapped up in birthday activities. Yo girl is now 21!

If they had hesitated to call themselves a gang when they had been in the city a year, they didn’t even hide it at the 2-year mark. Ian was standing on the balcony of the penthouse apartment the original 6 lived in together and thought about their journey. It was crazy to think how far they had gotten in 2 years. They had 15 criminals working together, taking hits, stealing priceless artifacts, taking hostages, whatever they needed to do. They weren’t really used as muscle anymore, you didn’t call the best for a job that simple.

Shayne and his group had fit seamlessly and eventually they had been joined by Damien’s friend from the hospital Ericka, or as they called her, Boze. She was a feisty nurse practitioner that had been fired from the hospital because she had been stealing medication to give to her grandmother. They took her in and when she wasn’t helping Damien in the medical room, she was kicking ass and taking names.

They had upgraded a lot. In addition to the new condo for the original 6, all of the others had moved on up as well. They had gotten a bigger warehouse they now had filled with things. The medical room in the new warehouse was far better than the previous one, with some machines they had worked hard to steal from the hospital without calling any attention to Damien. And though they didn’t spend nearly as much time in the warehouse because they had decent sized houses now, they still had a nice couch area where they could chill between missions.

Though Ian had always unofficially been the leader, it was more official with so many people looking to him for assignments. Anthony was obviously his second in command but seemed happy letting Ian take the front-runner position. Things ran like a well-oiled machine and the group couldn’t have been happier. Sure, they had bumps in the road, Sohinki had gone missing for a few days, and it turned out a vengeful former client had gotten a hold of him and it took him a little while before he could escape his ropes and kill the guy. They had nearly lost Flitz to a stab wound last summer, but Damien and Boze managed to save him. However, incidents like that were far and few in-between, and there hadn’t been a major injury in 3 months.

The kind of hits they had been taking had increased in price and in danger. They used to take out cheating husbands, and they still did but the last cheating husband happened to be a famous celebrity. The hit before that had been a corrupt politician. They stuck to one rule, however, no hits on gang members. If the person they were asked to kill was a member of any gang in the city or even the city over, it would be no deal. They wanted to steer clear of the line of fire from other gangs, and for the most part, they succeeded. They had had a group try and intimidate them before, but no one tried to harm them as long as they didn’t try to harm them. Ian wasn’t stupid enough to think this would be a permanent thing, but it kept the group at ease for the time being. Especially Courtney who had pretty much suggested this rule from the get-go. In a city like Los Santos, there were a lot of dangerous people who enjoyed starting a fight and being neutral meant they stayed out of most of the fighting.

Inside the penthouse, all of his friends and members were partying. As a tradition, they celebrated milestones. And it being 2 years, they went all out. They had decorated the Livingroom, ordered a lot of food and brought more than enough alcohol. Matt Raub and Joe Berretta, as well as some of their associates, had come so it was quite a party. Ian had gone to the balcony to take a small break from the loud music.

It was one of those moments when Ian couldn’t be anything but great full how everything had turned out. The decisions they had made on their way to California could of lead them down the wrong road but now they were thriving. He was surrounded by people he cared about and getting to do things he enjoyed, what more could anyone ask for?

Ian’s thought process was cut short when there was suddenly a hand on his shoulder. He jumped slightly but when he turned, it was just Lasercorn. “Everything ok?” Corn asked, clearly super drunk.

“Better than ok.” Ian answered, “Just getting some fresh air.”

Corn nodded, “By the way, theirs a guy in there who tried to sell me a group of 5 racing horses that were stolen from Brazil.”

The two of them cracked up. Ian had to hold onto the railing to keep from falling over, he wasn’t sober either. When they calmed down enough to talk again, corn continued. “So, can I take $700,000 from our reserves?”

“Hell no. You’re not buying 5 racehorses.” Ian said in-between his renewed laughter.

“This new place is huge! I’m sure we could make room for them” Lasercorn begged, his hand back on Ian’s shoulder.”

“You're ridiculous,” Ian responded and suddenly Lasercorn was kissing him. Ian wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be convincing him or just corn being drunk and horny, but he wasn’t complaining. The two made out against the railing drunkenly and hungrily, Lasercorn’s hands grabbing Ian’s ass and Ian’s hands in Corn’s hair.

When Lasercorn finally breaks apart for air, there is a moment where they just look at each other panting, before Corn speaks. “So, about those horses…”

Ian playfully pushes Ian off him, “That’s it, I’m going inside.” Ian says dramatically walking back into the party.

Lasercorn follows him, “IT’S A GOOD BUSINESS VENTURE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....... This chapter is 100% a filler and super short, but I needed this stuff to happen before the next chapter, where shit will get seriousssssss. I'm gonna try and get that out super soon though so you guys aren't left with this short ass chapter for too long.


	13. A Tense Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gang gains some traction and they are contacted by a notorious gang leader.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised the next one soon and its a long one!

At this point, the group was well known as the Smosh gang, a silly name that Ian and Anthony had come up with. Anthony remembered the day Matt asked if they were serious about that name, and when they assured him they were, he just sighed heavily. A group of highly dangerous and aggressive criminals calling themselves Smosh, really reflects the sense of humor the leaders had.

As silly as the name is, people whispered the name in fear. They were really good at hiding their identities, but the name got tossed around. Rumors turned up with fantastical stories about the horrible things the gang had done, and while a good amount of them was true, most of them were not. One day Damien told them all of a lady who he had talked to who said that the Smosh gang had kidnapped and tortured her friend’s, friend’s entire family.

With the weight of the Smosh name, came more people asking about them. Matt called them nearly daily with another person or who wanted to meet them. They didn’t entertain all of them however, they preferred their dealings to be anonymous and paid online. This particular call was different.

“This is not your run of the mill client. 2 minutes ago, I was on the phone with a member of Hi-five. He said Matthias himself wants to talk to you.”

“How do you know this isn’t a scam?” Ian asked suspiciously.

“This isn’t some random guy who called me. I’ve dealt with Matthias before and he always communicates with this guy. It’s the real deal, and if you don’t agree, there are gonna be some issues you don’t want to concern yourself with.” Matt said straight, “He said you can bring as many people as you want, meet him at the pizzeria on 5th. He knows the owners, so you guys will be meeting in the back.”

“So, you already told them we would do it?” Ian asked, writing down the things Matt had said so he wouldn’t forget.

“Yes, because you guys aren’t stupid to anger one of the biggest gang leaders in California.” Matt said simply, “he wants you tonight at 9, don’t be late.”

Seeing as they are all out and about, Ian messages the group chat to catch the group up to speed and as expected, no one’s excited to say the least.

 

Courtney: We shouldn’t even go! Isn’t this part of the, no messing with other gang’s thing?

Lasercorn: guys like Matthias will see us not agreeing to go as an act of hostility

Lasercorn: which is what the no messing with gang’s thing was made to avoid

Ian: yeah that’s pretty much what Matt said

Courtney: Fuck

Mari: I don’t like this at all.

Keith: same

Keith: and neither does Noah

Anthony: If we don’t have a choice then we have to

Ian: the guy did say we could bring as many people as we want

Ian: and the thing is in 3 hours

Courtney: Fuck! Me, Olivia, and Shayne are still in Oregon.

Courtney: We wouldn’t make it even if we left now, which we can’t

Keith: me and Noah are busy tailing the guy we have been tracking all week, but we can’t let you go alone

Mari: he won’t be alone, me and Sohinki are fucking there

Anthony: You know I’m there.

Lasercorn: Count me there

Joven: No way you’re going without me

Keith: good because this guy was fucking hard to track down

Ian: Where’s Boze? She is usually one to jump at this kind of opportunity.

Mari: She is visiting her mother so her phone’s off

Mari: And Damien got a call about a medical emergency, so he isn’t coming home from the hospital anytime soon.

Wes: Me and Flitz have to be out of the city to shoot a guy at 10

Wes: and they are paying a pretty penny for us to get him and it may be our only chance

Ian: wow only 6 of us can go?

Courtney: I really don’t like this

Courtney: Maybe we can reschedule?

Ian: Once again, not the kind of guy you can do that with.

Lasercorn: 6 of us will be fine.

Lasercorn: Besides its supposed to be a friendly meeting. Also, how many guys can they cram into the back of that small pizzeria?

Courtney: Just let us know everything that goes down the second you can.

Courtney: And carry enough weapons to be considered your own armory

Ian: we will

Ian: the weapons thing seems a little excessive though?

Keith: Wouldn’t that hinder their movement?

Courtney: You know what I meant

Anthony: Our armory does not have enough guns for us to each be individual armories

Ian: maybe collectively we can become one

Joven: WHEN 6 BECOME 1

Courtney: I CAN’T STAND ANY OF YOU

…

The drive to the pizzeria is comfortable, aside from the nervous atmosphere. It feels like it 2 years ago and they are going to meet Matt again. The six of them, no idea what they are doing and driving down the roads in a shitty van (Sohinki still doesn’t understand why Joven won’t let them sell it). Sohinki absently mindedly wonders if this will change their lives nearly as much as that meeting, for some reason he hopes not.

They arrive 5 minutes early and the pizza store is clearly closed down for the night. A nice old Italian lady lets them in and points toward the curtain that separates the back room from the dining space. They thank her and cautiously make their way through the curtain into the back room.

The first thing Ian notices is that the room is bigger than expected, the back room is nearly the size of the entire front room. In the room, there are 7 people, which makes Ian a little wary. Does he usually have 6 people around him or did he somehow know how many people they were gonna bring? The room mostly has storage boxes around which Matthias’s entourage is sitting on strewn about the room. The man in question is sitting at one of the round tables from the front, smack dab in the middle of the room.

“You're early. I like that.” He said, standing up.

He reached out to shake someone’s hand and Ian quickly goes forward and shakes it, “I’m Ian. It's nice to meet you.” He says very formally.

“Sit down and we will get to business,” Matthias said sitting back down and gesturing for Ian to sit in the single chair opposite him. Ian sat down, and the rest of the group stood around him. “I’m sure you're wondering why we called you here.”

“Just a little,” Ian said with a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he didn’t like anything about this situation. This guy was too relaxed, too sure of himself. He talked as if they should be reveling at his feet for being called there like this was a privilege.

“Essentially, there is this guy, who is not dead, and we want you to change that. Not that we couldn’t do it ourselves of course, but we need this not to go back to us, and you guys are essentially an urban legend.” Matthias said, and Ian thinks he detected some jealousy at the end of that sentence.

“Well, killing people secretively is our specialty.” Ian responds, “Who is the person we need to make no longer alive?”

“Harley Morenstein.” Matthias said and the six all stiffened, glancing at each other nervously, “Is that a problem?” he replied looking a bit confused.

Ian took a deep breath before responding, hoping to god this would go over well, “We have very few rules that we follow when taking jobs, but one job that none of us ever take, is hits of other gang members, especially high-ranking ones like Harley Morenstein.”

“I don’t understand,” Matthias says, and the smile has completely left his face, he seems annoyed and still confused. Ian wonders if this is the first person to ever refuse something he asked them to do.

“We prefer to stay on neutral territory between gangs, it has temporarily kept us out of any major scuffles and we would like to keep it that way. Killing the second in command for the biggest gang in Hollywood, would not help us keep it that way.” Ian says carefully, “If it were anyone else, someone not associated with a group, we would be all for it, But I’m sorry we can’t do this one.”

After a pause, Matthias turns to one of his lackeys who quickly walks over and hands Ian a folded post it. Ian opened it and it had in small script, $800,000. “That is how much we are willing to pay,” Matthias said, his smug smile back as if he had figured everything out.

Ian sighed again, “As generous as that is, we stand by our rule.”

“Fine ill double it,” Matthias said simply.

“I don’t think you understand-” Ian tried again.

“Fine I’ll triple it but that’s as high as I’m willing to go.” Matthias interrupted.

“As much as that appeals to us, I’m not asking for more money.” Ian tried once again, trying to keep his voice from being raised, “If you have anyone, not associated with a group, we will gladly take it, but I’m afraid, nothing you say will get us to do this task.”

Mattias, clearly angry, is silent for a moment. “Well, that’s a shame.” He says coldly, any semblance of the warm smile he had before, gone. “I have to respect your conviction, but I do think you're making a mistake.” He paused another moment, looking at the 6 each in turn, before standing up, a colder smile on his lips. He outstretched his hand to Ian who promptly stood up and shook it. “It was nice meeting you, we will be in touch.”

With that blatant dismissal, the group left. As they prepared to drive away, Anthony was the first to speak up, “Anyone else hoping they won’t get in touch?”

As Ian sped the group down the street, they all voiced their agreement.

This would prove interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is one of the longest chapters I've put out yet! yay! and I finally introduce a new character, I've been waiting to! This chapter was a hell of a lot of fun to write and I got it out a lot quicker than I expected. Lets see if this bout of inspiration will continue!


	14. Getting Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some relationship stuff happens and anxieties are high about Hi5.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> over 500 hits omgggggggggggg <3

Sohinki lay smack dab in the middle of one of the 4 king sized beds in the apartment. Technically he was in his and Lasercorn’s room but that was only because their stuff was in it. The group had a habit of sleeping in whatever bed was empty or had the person they really wanted to sleep within. Tonight, however, the only other person home was Ian, who had a cold and was sleeping in his room. Everyone else was out and about, getting things done.

It was nearly 3 in the morning, and though he felt quite tired when he went to lie down, he was wide awake while looking out the window at the night sky above him and the nightlife below him. The city white noise was comforting in the empty room.

He thought back to the trip from New York. It seemed they were almost completely different people then. Young, naïve, willing to do anything despite the consequences. He liked to think they were more cautious now. They paid attention to detail and didn’t get caught. The fact that they robbed over 50 rest stops with the same car with the same license plates was beyond stupid. He was more than glad that when they started working with Joe, he had hooked them up with some license plates they could switch out periodically.

The trip itself wasn’t stupid though. That was the first time most of them had felt free. They could do what they want. They could take what they want. Most importantly they could fuck who they wanted, and boy did they. They did what they wanted in the back seats while barreling down the highway, while one of them was leaning out the window, in an abandoned field in the middle of the night and even while someone was driving. Those were the times, freedom and love.

It wasn’t that they didn’t have that now, but there were more worries in the air, the previous week’s meeting with Hi5’s boss, left them all on edge. He had so many more people than before to worry about, especially nights like this when he was alone, and everyone else was out and doing stuff.

At some point during his musings, he must have fallen asleep because he was suddenly awoken by the feeling of someone getting into bed with him. “Mmmm” He managed, still half sleep and sure as hell not about to open his eyes and turn around.

“It's just me.”  Whispered Lasercorn, as he slipped in closer to Sohinki, gently tugging the smaller man into his arms. Sohinki allowed himself to be pulled against Lasercorn and relished in how warm the other man was and how comforting being so close to him was.

“when did you get home?” Sohinki half whispered, snuggling close to him.

“About 30 minutes ago. I took a shower, checked on Ian and then came in here.” His voice a purr in Sohinki’s ear.

“You voluntarily took a shower, before you started to smell? Wow.” Sohinki laughed, his voice still soft, but he was more awake now, eyes still closed but more there mentally.

“I had blood all over me. Last time I got into bed like that, Anthony got super mad at me.”  Lasercorn admitted.

“That’s because you had gotten into ‘his’ bed, and he has white sheets dude.” Sohinki laughed again.

“I still say he overreacted.” Corn mumbled into Sohinki’s neck. He started placing kisses along Sohinki’s jaw bone, then started tracing it down to his collarbone bone. Sohinki hummed at the sensation, enjoying the attention. Things were less worrisome when you were in someone’s arms.

When the kisses changed from sweet to hot and heavy, things were even less worrisome.

…

 

“lick lick, lick lick” Shayne heard as he was walking toward Courtney and Olivia’s room, “I wanna eat your dick.” He heard Courtney continue as he neared the open door to see Courtney taking apart her gun to clean it at her desk, with Olivia on the bed absentmindedly on her phone. “But I can’t fuck up my nails…”

“Well, how are you gonna do it then?” Shayne asked making the two girls jump a little.

“For fucks sake Shayne, what are you even talking about” Courtney half laughed as she went back to disassembling her gun.

“How are you gonna eat my dick if you can’t fuck up your nails?” Shayne said, playfully leaning against the door frame.

“Nobody wants to eat your dick, Shayne.” Courtney said, the edge of the burn taken off by the laughter in her voice.

“You already know she was talking about my dick Shayne. How dare you assume!” Olivia piped up from her space on the bed.

“Exactly. And by the way Olivia, I’m gonna pick it up with chopsticks.” Courtney continued, just as she said that, Keith passed Shayne mumbling loudly about how crazy his friends are and the whole room bursts into laughter.

“anyway, me and Keith are heading to the warehouse, just wanted to see if you guys wanted to ride with us or were gonna chill here?” Shayne said when the laughter died down.

“We are meeting Mari here in 30min, so we will see you guys later.” Olivia answered.

“Got it. And if you have time could you guys pick up some hydrochloric acid?  We need some for tomorrow” Shayne said over his shoulder as he started walking after Keith.

“Sure, we’ll let you know” Courtney called after them, “Bye!”

Courtney stayed at her desk as she started reassembling the gun, listening carefully for the noises of the boys making their way out. It isn’t until she hears the garage open that she stops, putting the pieces down. At the sound, Olivia looks up from her phone as well. They stay still till they hear the garage door close as their friends drive off.

With that Courtney bounced out of her seat and straddled Olivia on the bed as the two began to passionately make out. They had been doing this for a few weeks now but hadn’t told any of their crew yet. They didn’t know quite what it was yet, so they didn’t know what to say.

All they knew is that in moments where they were attached at the lips, with hands roaming around hot bodies, the world that likely wanted them locked up or dead, dissolved around them. It was just them feeling each other in ways they had never before.

They weren’t quite sure what to call that.

…

 

Joven sat there as Damien methodically stitched up his arm. The assignment he had been on had went on with out a hitch except for the switchblade to the arm by a surprisingly agile old lady he had encountered. At the very least, putting a bullet in her head, discouraged anyone else to trying to fight him as he took a moment to switch with Shayne, so he could cover his wound.

He didn’t hate Damien anymore. Sure, he still wished he could be the lead medical person, Damien was a good guy, for the industry he was in, and he is as funny as he was skilled. Which was very.

Joven sort of saw himself as Damien’s apprentice. He would do all of the minor things when he and Boze were absent or busy, such as stitches, bandages, and the like. Even though he was used to being the one with the needle, aside from the pain, watching Damien stich the gash in his arm was hypnotizing. He worked himself into a slow rhythm, making each stich, neat and straight down his arm. Then he was done.

“There you go, grandma’s mess is all cleaned up.” Damien said as he went to get gauze to wrap it up.

“I never like having to kill civilians. But what was I gonna do, not make her an example?” Joven mused As Damien came back to wrap up his arm.

“That’s always the thing with crowd control when it comes to stick ups, if you let the people who get through your defenses live, then people would be less scared to try and be a hero.” Damien agrees securing the gauze with some medical tape. “Its part of the job.”

“and your ok with that?” Joven asks as Damien starts walking to the counter to get him some pain medication.

The question jars him, but he keeps walking and opens the drawer, “if I wasn’t, do you think I would be a part of this group?”

“I Don’t know man I just don’t understand why your rarely take jobs you know. Your completely ok with the violence, you even help us plan some missions. But if you ever join a job its to be the getaway driver, or the surveillance. It’s not that you’re not skilled either, you could put a karate master on their back, yet I’ve never seen you do that other than in self-defense.” Joven finally ask, clearly something he’d wanted to ask for a while.

Damien takes a moment before answering to gather his thoughts. “I feel more comfortable out of the line of fire, “He starts bringing a bottle of extra strength Pain meds over to joven, handing him a single pill and a bottle of water, “A lot of you guys, don’t have families, or left your families behind. Some of you hate your families and wouldn’t give a shit what happened to them. And for all of us, our closest friends are our group. For most of you, your reasons to live are fighting beside you. My big reasons to live are right outside the city, in a nice apartment I pay for, being taken care of by a nice nurse I pay for. If anything happened to me, my mom would end up in some sort of hospice for abandoned poor disabled people and my aunt would likely never return from one of her 3-day drinking binges and will be found dead in a gutter somewhere in a different state. I would like that to never happen.” Damien finishes as Joven takes his pill.

After a moment of silence, joven responds. “That makes sense. Sorry, by the way, if it felt like I was attacking you. I was genuinely curious.”

“I know you were. Its been a while since you hated me.” Damien said nonchalantly causing joven to choke on the sip of water he had been drinking.

“I never h-” Joven started

“Joven its ok. You are the least subtle person I have ever met. But we are good friends now and that’s all that matters. Want to go watch some movies in the breakroom? We have a new flat screen…"

Joven chuckles and follows Damien into the break room, glad to say he was happy that Damien was a part of their group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do promise you will see more of Matthias very soon but this chapter is more about some of the relationships between the group. Some more violence next chapter I promise. Got to balance out the sappy stuff. :)


	15. Bad feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They steal things and Anthony has a bad feeling about a new hit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a little short but things are picking up :)

Even though high profile hits were their specialty now a day, they still took the more involved missions whenever Matt Raub asked them. This time they had to steal a priceless thing, Olivia doesn’t remember quite what it was, just that it was priceless, and they were holding it under maximum security at the bank. They had to retrieve the case with the thing and bring it to Matt to give to his client.

It was a pretty big job so a lot of them were there, Ian, Wes, Flitz Lasercorn, Joven, Damien, Boze, and of course Olivia who was standing in the teller’s booth keeping all the tellers on the ground next to the wall with the intimidation of the huge gun she was holding. She knew that most of them probably wouldn’t have been so scared if they saw her face, luckily her tactical helmet and mask covered that up, and the rest of the gear made her look bulkier.

They had all been given jobs by Ian. While she and Boze were on hostage duty, Lasercorn was on explosives (as he usually was), and Joven was on hacking and retrieving the case. Wes and Flitz were keeping them protected as best they could and Ian and Damien were waiting in two armored vehicles with missile-proof glass. They had done missions like this many times. When they heard the explosion, meaning they were in the safe they had about 2 minutes to meet up with the two in the back and get in the vehicles that were waiting near the back.  

Almost on cue with her thoughts, Olivia heard the explosion, they were in. Her and Boze almost simultaneously pulled out their gas bombs and threw them at the room before running toward the back way their friends had gone. They ignored the sounds of the screaming and coughing hostages they had just abandoned and focused on where they were going. They had both memorized the map of the bank and followed the path easier to meet up their 4 friends. They had to shoot a few guards in the process, but they left relatively unscathed all six of them running out of the bank, avoiding the Arial fire from the helicopters now around them, and jumping in their vehicles.

The plan went off without a hitch. Since the bank was 3 hours away from the city, with about 2 hours of driving through the middle of nowhere roads, it was almost too easy. They took down the helicopters that were following them, as well as the cars chasing them, and changed cars 5 minutes out of the city, hiding their armored cars, they were expensive, in a secret base to be retrieved later. They piled in 2 non-descript cars and took them about half of the way along, stopping to get food, before making the final car change to a light blue minivan they all piled in to make the last hour and a half ride together. Once they were all together and in civilian outfits and knew they were safe, everyone checks in. No one had any wounds really except for the pathetic bruise Joven got on his shin for tripping.

They spend the rest of the trip laughing and talking about future jobs to come. Joven and Ian argue about what music they should play, while Boze braids Olivia’s hair. Wes talks about how he and Flitz are meeting up with Shayne and Noah when they got back and the four were leaving for a few days to take care of business in Nevada. Boze briefly talks about how she is gonna take a few days off to spend time with her mom. She even invites Olivia to come to meet her.

It's at that moment when Olivia realizes how domestic everything was. Sure, they had just committed a huge crime and killed and traumatized a good amount of people, but they were now acting like they were on a road trip with friends. Never mind the bloody riot gear in the bags in the trunk that was covering the case they had stolen from a high-security bank. Joven and Lasercorn now were yelling about who was the one who always left the dishes in the sink. Olivia thought about how bizarre the whole thing was, but also about how great it was. This is why the lifestyle worked for all of them. They could do whatever they want, while still enjoying life. She couldn’t imagine being in a serious gang where you had to be really respectful of your boss or he might off you. She much preferred thumping Ian in the back of the head when he said something stupid and expecting nothing back besides a “hey!”.

It didn’t matter that a grenade launcher was under their seat, they were a family.

When they get back to the city, the first thing they do it give the case to Matt, who hands them the money, 3.5 mil. Then they head to the warehouse where the rest of the group is there to greet them. The reunion is short-lived because soon enough, Wes, Flitz, Shane, and Noah have to go. Then Mari and Sohinki have to run to take care of their own business. The rest of the group slowly retreat back to their respective homes because its 4 In the morning and while some of them are tired, most of them just would rather do activities in the comfort of their bedrooms. Courtney and Keith end up going to Ian and Anthony’s penthouse by the invite of Mari to drink the early morning away. And though Olivia was invited, she declined in order to take care of a few things before going home, she was one of the few that was tired.

She had that feeling of everything being so domestic again while she drove to take care of some errands, though the fact that she was restocking on ammo, made it slightly less mundane. When she arrived home, she took the quickest shower before sliding under her comforting blankets curling up and preparing her mind to fall asleep.

Lately, Olivia would wait for Courtney to slip into her bed and the two would sleep tangled together, but Olivia knew not to wait now. Courtney would likely sleep at the penthouse, if she didn’t walk in at 7 am super drunk. Either way, Olivia closed her eyes and willed her mind to calm, she would have plenty of time to scheme tomorrow, or technically, later that day.

…

The man who hired them to get the artifact was so pleased he apparently wanted to hire them for another task. It was so simple that Ian was immediately suspicious. They were hired to kill a civilian who lived in a decent part of the city.

They were given his address as well as basic information such as how he looked. The suspicious part was that they were paying them 5 million to kill a simple man with no political standing, or any notoriety. When asked why that particular man. He said that he was the brother of an enemy of his.

Still confused by the amount of money, they checked with joe to make sure it wasn’t a member of a gang and he wasn’t. The name Joseph Fredrick rang no bells, for anyone I joes group. Upon research, he was an alone businessman who didn’t use social media much.

Seeing as they couldn’t find a reason to refuse the job, they took it. Mari took the assignment and was going to do it alone because she didn’t really need any help for such a simple job. She was going to go the next day and take her motorcycle.

Anthony told the group he still had a bad feeling about all of this, however, they all knew that not taking a job because of a bad feeling wouldn’t make them any friends.

They all hoped that it was because of nerves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can guess whats gonna happen put it in the comments below, I won't say if your right or wrong but I will be really proud from a distance if you've figured it out! :)


	16. A simple hit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mari kills a guy and they get paid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being so late! I'm at vidcon this weekend so I've been super busy having fun! I'm uploading 2 times tonight to make up for it :)

Anthony ended up accompanying Mari on her trip, as back up.  Even though a bunch of the group thought he was overreacting, they had to agree it couldn’t hurt to have back up. He wasn’t going to do anything unless needed, he was going to wait outside for her.

They rode the motorcycle together, Anthony’s hands wrapped around Mari’s waist and his head resting on her shoulder. When they arrived in front of the unassuming house in the middle of the line of unassuming houses, Anthony remained on the bicycle while Mari took off her helmet and shook out her hair. She was very aware of the gun she had under her leather jacket. The top of the suppressor she had attached that morning, was under the waistband of her jeans.

She knocked on the door, holding the helmet under her arm on the side the gun was not. A relatively attractive man answered the door. He had at least a foot on Mari and he scratched his beard as he opened the door. He looked vaguely annoyed that someone felt the need t bother him today but lucky for Mari, he didn’t look suspicious. “Joseph Fredrick?” Mari asked as she went over the rest of the script she had been given, by the man who had hired them, in her head.

“In the flesh,” Joseph answered, he gave her a look as if to say, just get over with it.

“I have a something from your brother.” She said simply. He sighed with obvious annoyance, clearly not surprised by the unknown girl being sent to tell him something important.

He gestured for her to go inside and she did, following his lead into the house. It wasn’t fancy or filled with expensive things like she had expected. It was modestly decorated and simply furnished. The walls were mostly bare and in the living room, there wasn’t much but 2 couches, a tv, a coffee table and a small bookcase. He sat down on the couch and she politely shook her head when he gestured at the seat next to him. “So, what has my big bro sent, that was so important, it couldn’t wait till I could see him next?” Joseph asked simply, leaning back on the couch.

Mari was surprised how well this script had worked out, because now as she reached for her gun, he wasn’t even slightly suspicious of what she could be pulling out. She only catches a glimpse of fear and surprise on his face, as she points the gun and shoots, killing him with one bullet straight to the forehead.

She was more than a little disappointed that they had been instructed not to touch anything in the house at all, even to steal. And though Lasercorn had encouraged her to do so anyway, she had decided to listen to the man. Clearly, he knew a lot about this man since his plan went well, and likely it was best she follows all of his directions. She used a tissue from her pocket to open the front door back open and casually leave the house, she even turned to say goodbye, in case anyone was watching from their windows, so it would appear she was saying it to Joseph. She hopped on the motorcycle in front of Anthony and they rode off.

As soon as they made it back, they had Matt relay that the deed had been done and told the rest of the group how uneventful the whole thing had been. All of their worrying had been for naught. Literally nothing weird had happened and they had made it out with 5 million dollars. It seemed to be worth a celebration.

Unlike a lot of their previous parties, this one was once again at the penthouse. The group blasted music while getting drunk together till nearly 6 in the morning. They were honestly surprised that they hadn’t gotten any noise complaints.

The next morning (actually 2 in the afternoon), Mari awoke with a pounding headache to find her body naked, as well as 3 more naked bodies strewn about her bed, and one on the floor. Everyone else was sleeping soundly, so she carefully shuffled past them to the bathroom to swallow 2 painkillers before making her way to the kitchen to get herself some water, along her journey back through the room, she heard her phone ring and grabbed it quickly from the nightstand, exiting the room as she answered it. It was Matt Raub.

“Great job Mari. He said he knows you did everything he wanted to a T and wants to thank you for following his instructions. He transferred the money this morning.” Matt explained

As she responded, Mari put him on speaker, so she could check and make sure that they had received the money in the smosh account, which they had, “It was super easy, tell him to give us something more challenging next time”

“That was the other thing he wanted to relay, he said while he appreciated your help, he is done with the smosh group and will be moving on to other things. He even said, don’t bother trying to contact him. I don’t quite know why; the man was very big on secrecy I doubt he ever even told me his real name.” Matt responded, and while Mari raised an eyebrow to that, she wasn’t that surprised. They had had weirder situations.

They had gotten the money, so they had no reason to contact the guy anyway. Though it would have been nice to continue getting the high payroll, they would do fine without him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one was short but the next one is long enough to make up for it :)


	17. The truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bad feelings in their stomachs are proved correct

Wes was sitting in his and Flitz’s apartment alone. Lasercorn and Sohinki were on their way and he was chilling on the couch, watching tv and drinking a beer, when his cell phone rang. It was an old associate of his that he might call a friend. Matthew Patrick was a relatively loyal fellow who spent most of his time being paid to be the messenger. He was hired by bigger people to get people to do things for them. When he and Flitz had first started working with Matt Raub, all those years ago, Matthew was usually calling him for a hit.

It had been a while since he had received a call personally from him so when he answered the phone he greeted him like an old friend. “Matthew! It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, I hear you’ve been working for some other people lately so it's been a while since anyone has needed me to call you directly,” Matthew answered over the phone.

“Yeah, I’m sure my boss has been talking to you.” Wes thought that boss sounded better than lover or guy he occasionally fucked into a mattress. “How’s Steph?”

“She is doing great. Has Flitz joined you in your new adventures?”

“Of course, he has. So, what brings you to call me today?” Wes finally said, getting to the point.

“Oh right. I have a new client who trusts me more than most of my previous clients. He told me to choose who I think is a very talented hitman and hire them for him. So, I thought why not call you up.”

“Wow, I’m flattered.” Wes said, a little taken aback at the compliment. “can you tell me a little more about the job?”

“Well It says her name is,” there’s a pause as Matthew attempts to pronounce the name that has likely been written out for him, “Mari Takahashi”

Wes had chosen the wrong moment to take a sip of his drink because at the mention of one of his partner's name he suddenly finds himself choking on his drink. He hears the voice on the other line asking him if he is ok, and once he composes himself he starts speaking in his still hoarse voice, “Yeah it went down the wrong hole sorry,” He clears his throat before continuing, “Say the name again, I didn’t hear you.”

“Mari Takahashi. She apparently killed my client’s brother? She is apart of the smosh gang I believe. What a weird name for a gang, right? Anyways, he wants her dead before the funeral, which is this Saturday, so you have 4 whole days. Plenty of time.  We don’t have a whole lot of information on where she will be, since the smosh group is really good at hiding their Identities, but I can text you a description and a few places she has been spotted at in the past, not sure how relevant they are, but you know your stuff so I’m sure you will figure it out.” Matthew said cheerfully.

The entire time he had been talking, Wes had been pacing, trying to decide exactly what to do, luckily Matthew tended to talk his ear off, so he had enough time to come up with a quick plan. “Yeah all of that sounds fine, I’ll take the job,” Wes said in as calm a voice as he could. “Is there any information you can tell me about the client? Like is he in a gang too or?”

“Nope sorry. The client wants complete secrecy. He wants the whole thing over with a simple death, rather than revenge plots and all that nonsense.” Wes tried to ignore the irony in Matthew’s statement as he continued. “I’ll be sure to text you everything in a few minutes.”

With perfect timing, he heard the doorbell ring and got another idea. “Hey, I have to go right now, but you should come over tonight. A couple of my buddies will be here, I have beer and we can catch up.”

“You know what that sounds great. I could use a night out.” Matthew answered enthusiastically and Wes internally celebrated. “Are you still living in the same place?”

“No, I’ll send you the new address,” Wes said, as he buzzed in his friends.

“So, I’ll send you the information, and finish up a few things and I should be ready to head out in an hour, is that good?” Matthew asked.

“Perfect, I’ll see you then.”

Within 20 minutes most of the group were sitting in the warehouse freaking out over the information Wes had just given them. Anthony had kept going on about how he had been right to be worried about the super simple mission they had paid so well for. Lasercorn kept saying how they need to find out who hired the hit, so they could blow his head off. Mari, though she was the main topic of conversation, was mostly silent. She was sitting next to Courtney who had a protective arm over her shoulder, and she had a mostly straight face, though it was clearly forced.

Amid all the chaos, Ian finally called the group to order. He agreed with Wes’s plan to have Matthew go to Wes’s apartment, so they can get more information out of him. A few people, including Mari, who insisted, were gonna join the group to the apartment to do the deed and the rest of the group who could, were to reconvene at the warehouse after it was done to figure out the right course of action.

The set up was simple. Wes, Joven, and Flitz were going to greet him and act as though it really is just a hangout. They would get as much information out of him as casually as they could. Once that was exhausted, Mari followed by Lasercorn and Sohinki, would make their entrance and they would try more brutal methods of getting information. Once the information was given, they would likely kill him, so he couldn’t warn his client, though the exact details would be decided by the group afterward.

When Matthew finally said he was heading out, the group got into positions. Flitz even set up a few cameras so Ian and Anthony, along with anyone who was still at the warehouse, would be aware of what was going on. And also, so they could save the video for future reference.

Wes feels as though they should have gotten Oscars for their performances as they warmly welcomed Matthew in. The gave him a beer and talked.

The boys did their best to steer the conversation in the direction they wanted it to go to. They started off talking about pleasantries, where they were told that Stephanie, Matthew’s wife, was expecting. Eventually, they moved the topic to work. And after talking about various jobs they had done recently, Wes prepared to ask the main question.

“I’m really curious about this client who called a hit on the guy who killed his brother but, wants complete secrecy. What’s up with that? Wouldn’t smosh know that it was him, because they killed his brother?” Wes threw in casually.

“well there’s not too much I can say. The guy thought he was cool with the smosh gang than they go ahead and kill his brother. While he said he wanted to kill the whole group, he said, for now, he would settle for just the girl who did it.  He for some reason is under the impression that smosh will have no idea who it was unless someone told them.“ Well, that’s one thing that this mystery guy got right. They had no idea.

Finally, they were done trying to start things casually. Wes texted Mari and waited for their plan to unfold.  Not more than 2 minutes later the doorbell rang. Wes said something about a friend that was late as he ran to get the door. He welcomed her as well as Lasercorn and Sohinki and locked the door behind them, as Mari made her way to join the group.

Matthew clearly wasn’t the brightest, because even though he had just sent Wes a description of this girl, he didn’t seem suspicious at all when Mari walked over to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Matthew.” He said charmingly, reaching out to shake her hand.

All the boys silently put their hands on their waistbands in preparation, completely out of Matthews radar. “Nice to meet you. My name is,” She paused and wiped the smile from her face as she finished the sentence, “Mari Takahashi.”

Very quickly Matthew realized what was going on enough to jump up and reach for the gun likely in his belt, but before he could do so much as move his jacket out of the way Mari, Flitz and Joven had guns out and pointed at him. Not to mention, Lasercorn and Sohinki had also pulled their guns out. All pretense of friendship was gone, and the man looked angry but mostly scared.

“Drop the gun,” Flitz said intimidatingly and Matthew did just that. He dropped the gun on the floor and kicked it toward Mari who picked it up. Finally, Wes walked over to him, “I don’t know why I was ever under the impression that you were bright.” He started sitting down on the couch and motioning matt to sit back down in the armchair he was standing in front of, and he does so uneasily, “Most people see if the victim has a connection to the hitman before hiring them. Let alone at least know the name of the group the hitman is affiliated with.”

“Your apart of the smosh gang,” Matthew says simply.

“Well, it took you long enough!” Wes practically laughed, and Lasercorn joined him in the light laughter.

“Listen, I did nothing. I’m the messenger, I don’t want Mari dead, I don’t even have a brother!” Matthew says pleadingly.

“We know, we want to know who hired you.”

“You know I can’t say that-”

“Oh, I think you can.” Lasercorn interjected, “see if you don’t tell us, we are gonna straight up kill you. Fuck torture, my trigger finger is really wanting to pull, so if you want to go home to your pregnant wife I recommend you start talking.”

“If you kill me, how will you find out who is after you?” He answers, his voice practically trembling.

“If the guy wants her dead, he will send someone else. We’ll find out through them. Now start talking. We haven’t got all night.” Wes answered simply.

They watched the inner turmoil on his face, clearly unsure of what to do. As the moment grows too long, Wes gets bored. “Well if you’re not going to-“ Wes starts to gesture for his friends to fire.

“NO WAIT!” Matthew puts his hands up, “ ILL TELL YOU!”

“Well, out with it then,” Mari said from her position with the gun.

“It's Matthias. You know the head of Hi5? He hired me. You killed his brother. His brother’s name is Joseph Fredrick, his brother called him J-fred, and you killed him about 10 days ago.” He got out quickly.

Everyone froze for a moment, they were not prepared for that. Finally, Sohinki broke the silence, “that billionaire son of a bitch con’d us!”

“Wait but we did our thorough research, Joseph had no affiliation with any gangs,” Mari said with disbelief.

“Jfred wasn’t ok with violence so he didn’t associate with his brother’s business. Matthias did his best to make sure his brother didn’t fall on any radars.”  Matthew said hurriedly.

The new information weighed heavily on the whole group. The thing they had worked hard to avoid had come true. They had made an enemy of another gang.

Mari, filled with anger suddenly found herself on her feet. Next thing she knew she was punching Matthew repeatedly. Though he seemed to be trying to defend himself, his arms didn’t deflect much and she landed a few good blows to his face. It took a moment before anyone bothered pulling her off him, but when they finally did she didn’t fight against the arms holding her, she sunk into them. She then looked up to see it was Wes holding her.

“Someone get him a napkin so his nose doesn’t bleed all over my carpet,” Wes said, a comforting hand on her back. Someone ran to get  a napkin while Lasercorn spoke up, “Why didn’t you let her kill him?”

Matthew now sitting up with the napkin held to his nose looked at Wes to see what he would say, a frightened expression they could mostly see from the eye that wasn’t quickly swelling up. “Because he still might be useful. We’ll bring him to Ian and He’ll decide what to do.”

“Can I be the one to kill him when Ian says we can?” Lasercorn says to Wes while using his crazy eyes on the still bleeding man on the floor.

“I think I should get that honor,” Mari said still in Wes’s arms.

“Woah, I thought you said you would let me go if I talked???” Matthew said desperately.

“It's not up to us, though if it was up to Mari, you would know your fate,” Wes said simply before using one of his hands to gesture Flitz and Sohinki to matt and they each grabbed him by the arms and lifted him up. Matthew protested as they yanked his arms behind his back and Sohinki used a zip tie around his wrists.

“I thought we were friends man! We had good times together!” He pleaded one more time at Wes while Sohinki tied a blindfold around his eyes.

“Well, you fucked up. As happy as I am that you fucked up with me, you still fucked up. I mean how could you not do your research man! I might have asked Ian to let you go except we have an advantage now, we know he wants to kill her and he doesn’t know we do. We can’t have someone taking away our advantage, now can we?” Wes says simply. “And how can we trust a man that no one can even trust to do his research?”

Once Matthew is gagged, Flitz and Sohinki drag him out of the apartment. They are gonna take him down the back staircase and drive him to the warehouse. The rest of them go to follow them, except for Mari and Wes who are still standing in the middle of the room, Mari gripping Wes’s arms that are around her. He waits till she finally squeezes one last time and let’s go. He takes that as a cue and let’s go. The two exchange a look before heading after their friends.

“are you ok?” Wes finally asks as they descend the quiet back staircase.

 Mari responds after a moment, “When the guy who wants me dead is dead, I will be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) Anyone see it coming?


	18. Tattle Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whole group gets even angrier when their one advantage is taken away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as we get closer and closer to the final conflict, its harder and harder to write these quickly because I have to make sure I'm developing the characters the way I want them toooo.

They were all in the warehouse sitting in the meeting room that wasn’t big enough for all of them combined but they managed. Some people were sharing the seats around the conference tables, some people were standing, and Ian was sitting on the small side table at the front of the room next to the whiteboard. All they had done so far was write down all the information they had gleaned from Matthew Patrick, the man who was currently tied up tightly in the next room. Wes and Lasercorn were with him, making sure he didn’t have anything hidden on his body then tying him up to a pipe along the wall, so they could talk in the room without having to worry about him escaping. Not that they were that worried, he wasn’t exactly the strongest man they knew and Lasercorn’s knots were pretty tight in both meanings of the word.

When the two walked back in the room to join the group, Wes stood next to Flitz in the back, and Sohinki got up from his chair for Lasercorn to sit down so he could sit in his lap, Ian stood back up and looked like he was about to speak, but he sort of stood still for a moment, the silence in the room was deafening. Finally, he spoke, dry humor in his voice. “So, I guess we have to take down Hi5?”

“if only it were that simple,” Damien said from his spot near the phone right next to Shayne with Boze sitting half on both of their laps.

“we have to find a way to make it that simple,” Wes said matter-of-factly, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.

Olivia ran her fingers through her hair as she spoke, “Is trying to take down one of the biggest gangs in the state, let alone Los Santos, the best idea? This guy isn’t a senseless killer, he is intelligent. Maybe we can make him see reason, I mean we were duped too.”

Lasercorn practically scoffed at the idea, “This guy isn’t gonna listen to us, he isn’t gonna reason with us. Even if we went to him like, ‘we didn’t know it was your brother we were paid by this guy to do it, you should go after him’, he wouldn’t believe a word we said. Even if he did, he probably will still want Mari dead, because regardless of who paid us, she still killed him.”

Courtney nodded reluctantly, “He isn’t gonna try and spare lives in this, he will kill as many people as he can that made this happen, and Mari is, unfortunately, a big part of it.

“speaking of big parts of this,” Mari started, “We need to start tracking down the guy who called the hit.”

“Oh yes, the man none of us have ever met, whom Ian has only talked on the phone the with once. The same man who has given us 4 different fake names and has only paid us through anonymous wire transfers from two different countries (that are from 2 different sides of the world),  that are under 2 more fake names? Yeah, we will have a trail in no time.” Anthony said causing Mari to go quiet again, the look on her face, was one of someone furious.

“Even though we have 6 names, no picture, and two likely already closed international bank accounts, I’m still gonna try. “ Joven said quietly, “I mean there are people I can talk to and forums I can check to see if anyone has had a similar situation if this guy has done this before maybe I can find out.”

“anything is worth a shot Joven. You and Sohinki should definitely work on that and keep me updated.” Ian said, sitting back down on the table. The air in the room was less tense and more exhausted, they weren’t bubbling with angry energy, it was the fact that none of them wanted to be there, none of them had the energy to start planning their biggest conflict, but they knew they didn’t have a choice.

“So, what are we gonna do with Matthew?” Wes said after a beat.

“probably kill him.” Ian said softly, “But he doesn’t need to know that yet. We’ll make him believe that we will let him go if he does some stuff for us, such as give us all the information he has and maybe some numbers and the like. Once that’s done,  we will kill him in a non-suspicious way to avoid any more attention on us from any of his friends. Sound good?” When no one protested, Ian stood up again and continued, “I say trying to get through to Matthias is worth a shot, the only problem is the second we contact him, he will know how much we know and who we have.  And he knows a lot. One of the places Matthew told Wes to look for Mari in, is 3 blocks away from here.”

“when Matthew never follows through he is gonna hire another hitman.” Anthony reminded Ian, “We should move warehouses.”

“We will,” Ian agreed, “we can hire some third-party movers to move our stuff across town or where ever, but in the new area, we have to lay low.”

“let me guess, “ Mari sighed, “ I have to stay in the warehouse or home for my own protection,” Mari said sarcasm clear in her voice.

“not just you.” Ian explained simply, “Also Anthony, Lasercorn, Sohinki, Joven, and I”

“I’m sorry, why the hell do we have to lay low?!” Joven protested, sitting up straighter in his chair.

Wes put his hand on his forehead, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, “ I didn’t even think about that Ian,” he said, and the rest of the confused group looked to him for an explanation, “ Because he met them. All 6 of them met him face to face. I’m sure he has pictures of all of them and if any of his group finds any of them, Mari or not, they would be in danger. Especially when they realize we know what he wants to do.” As he said it, the realization spread throughout the room with mixed reactions. Lasercorn looked straight up pissed, while Joven just looked kind of sad.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna keep you guys cooped up. You guys can take out of  state missions  and some stuff while heavily disguised.” Ian said quickly, alleviating some of the tension in the room.

The conversation went on for a while after that. There was some discussion about if they would take offense or defense. The conversation ended up back to the hostage they had tied up no more than 15 feet away. “You have his phone, right Wes?” Anthony asked, and Wes nodded, handing Anthony an iPhone in a worn black case.

When the phone opened without a password, Anthony rolled his eyes at the stupidity but started his quest to see what the man had. The conversation of the group didn’t have long to wander to a different topic before Anthony cursed loudly, bringing the attention back to him.

“How long ago did you take his phone?” Anthony asked Wes as he leaned into his arm on the table.

“we searched him when we got to the warehouse. What did you find?” Wes said worriedly

“Somehow, while squeezed between you and Flitz in the car, he contacted Matthias.” Anthony barely finished his sentence when the room went up in an uproar.

“How the fuck did he do that?” Wes yelled over the group.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP” Ian yelled, silencing the room. After a beat, he turned to Anthony, “What did he say?”

“He said, ‘They know. They got me.’ And then he copied and pasted Wes’s address.” Anthony said, handing Ian the phone.

The anger in the room was so thick it could be cut with a knife. It took a moment before Ian finally spoke. “Corn-“

Before Ian even finished his name Lasercorn was on it, practically throwing Sohinki off his lap as he half sprinted to the door. Within a minute, Lasercorn was back and he was roughly pushing the hostage who still had a blindfold on. Lasercorn dragged him to the front of the room and removed his blindfold before roughly pushing him to the floor in front of the group.

The look on the man’s face as he blinked at the sudden lights then registered the look of the super angry and armed people that were all in front of him, definitely didn’t scream confident. He sat up enough to scoot his way back unaware of Ian there who announced his presence by kicking Matthew away from his feet as if he were garbage on the street. The kick landed on his back and he let out a small grunt as he quickly moved away from Ian, careful to not get much closer to the group.

“You don’t want to, live do you?” Ian asked in a measured tone. His arms crossed but a smirk on his face.

“Do you think I’m stupid? Do you actually think I’m an idiot?” Matthew asked sitting up fully and though he seemed angry it wasn’t very intimidating to see a man who had his arms tied behind his back sitting on the floor. “The moment they loaded me in that car I knew the plan was to kill me. No bullshit about how ‘if I do this or tell you that I’ll be free’ will work. You can only stretch that lie for so long.”

Lasercorn looked as if he was gonna charge the captive but Ian simply held his hand up and pointed back to Lasercorn’s seat. Sohinki got up again to let Lasercorn sit down but this time didn’t sit on his lap. Instead, he stood behind him, likely to be out of the line of fire, a supporting hand on his shoulder. “Anthony, please go into his map, and tell me what some of his saved addresses are.” Anthony smiled at him, clearly understanding the plan and quickly started going through the phone.

Slowly more of the room began to get what the plan was, but Matthew still seemed confused. “We never met in person, and even if we did, it wouldn’t have been in his base or anywhere where you could find him and infiltrate-“

Anthony didn’t bother letting him finish, “I think I found the address you were looking for. His home address, his wife’s work address,  even the address to his wife’s doctors office.”

With each word, Matthews' face grew even paler and his lip curled even more. “You wouldn’t fucking dare” he half whispered out of fear and anger.”

“Actually, we would dare. If we can’t bribe you with keeping your own life, then we will threaten your wife’s. Very simple.” Ian took a step toward the captive and yanked him up to a standing position by his hair, ignoring the yelps of pain from the man. “A few of us are going to take you into a room and ask you some question. If everything you say turns out to be true, your wife lives. So, I would think very carefully about what your gonna say. Lasercorn, take him into the room.” Lasercorn quickly got up and once again roughly dragged the man, out of the room.

Ian, Anthony, and Wes followed Lasercorn out for the interrogation, and the rest of the group sort of separates, everyone off to get things done. Mari finds herself helping Joven mix some c4 for Courtney and Olivia’s out of state mission they were supposed to leave for the next day. The two of them worked in silence, occasionally being interrupted by a muffled yell or scream from the interrogation.

After a little while of working in silence, Mari finally breaks the silence, “We are criminals. We kill people, steal things and help people sell drugs. It would be completely naïve to think I could be in this line of work and never have a powerful group be after us, or me.” She stopped what she was doing for the moment and careful to not touch her face to the chemicals on her gloves, used her wrist to push back a strand of hair from her face. Joven looked up at her as she continued, “even though we took measures to prevent it from happening any time soon, we all knew it was gonna happen.  It’s not like I was stupid enough to think that no one would ever come after us, no matter what we did.”

“your right.” Joven said, and Mari turned to look at him, unsure of where he was going with that, “but knowing what kind of danger you’re in for doesn’t mean you can’t be worried when the danger is imminent. Even though you knew this was likely gonna happen it doesn’t mean that everyone expects you to not give a shit. Our jobs are scary, we are allowed to be scared, as long as we can kick ass with a few nerves in our stomach.”

Mari smiled at that, “You know I can always kick ass.” She said silently saying thank you with her eyes, “speaking of kicking ass, I get to punch that tattler before Lasercorn kills him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you need something to read while waiting for the next chapter, go check out my chat fic Seniors! I update a little a faster over there and its a lot less murdery, a lot more silliness and memes.


	19. Step one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The set up a plan to get the upper hand on their newfound enemies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK! For those of you who haven't been reading my other fic, seniors, I took a break from this fic to finish up that one, and now that Ive finished that story, I'm back here!

With all of the resources Matt Raub could muster, they moved out of the warehouse in 3 days. They found a bigger one just outside of the city with a secret entrance and good-sized garage. Rather than renting this one, however, they ended up buying it, so now they had a good hideaway no one would check up on.

In the new warehouse, Matthew had his own temporary prison cell that used to be a bathroom that they threw a mattress in. They didn’t plan for him to be there much longer anyway. Wes tried to convince the rest of the group he would be fine on the tile floor with just a blanket. He was rightfully mad that his ‘old friend’ made his apartment unsafe for him to live in, therefore forcing him to move too. When Wes had gone to get their stuff, they got there to the place having been ransacked and had barely any of their valuables left to move to the big condo until they could find a nice place.

Matthew didn’t have any outstanding information for them. Even though now they did have his phone, that they saved the numbers and addresses on it before having it wiped so no one could track them, they didn’t have much else. The only information that was slightly useful was that he had apparently met an associate of Matthias’, Tanner, at the same pizza place they had met before. That pizza place seemed to be their meeting space. Also, it seemed this Tanner guy was Matthias’ second in command. And that was it. They would have to figure out everything else themselves.

4 days into being in their new space, Mari got to beat Matthew to death with a heavy lead pipe, to get out some of her anger. To get out some of their anger, Wes and Lasercorn set about dissolving the body in the basement with a shit ton of acid.

To throw the wife off, they had Sohinki send her an email from his account from a random IP in India, essentially saying that he was leaving her, and to not look for him. It worked pretty well since she sent a long email in return begging him to come back and say all of this to her face if it were true, but all Sohinki did was deactivate his email.

Now that they had taken care of one problem, they had the far more pressing one to take care of. They Had Olivia and Noah, the two most unassuming of the group, to case the pizza place. They did so for about 2 weeks while the group loaded the fuck up. They got cool looking baklava’s, new guns, bulletproof vests, silencers, and anything else they would need to hopefully have the advantage.

Noah and Olivia went in a few times to buy some pizza, though most of their casing was watching from the outside. The pizza place was mostly quiet, not a lot of people frequented it, with the exception of Friday nights. A load of people tended to load in and settle in way too close to closing, and then none of them exited till way after.  On the 2nd Friday, wearing a camera, Olivia went in and bought whatever pizza slice they had left before closing, as an excuse to get some film of the guys to bring back to the group.

Ian, Anthony, Joven, Sohinki, Mari, and Lasercorn sat down with Olivia and Noah, to pour over the footage. The clip wasn’t long, the old lady clearly was rushing Olivia out, and barely heated up her slice in the first place. But about 2 minutes in Joven pauses the footage, “Right there! Wasn’t that one of the guys from when we met him?”

“looks like it.” Anthony agreed

“Also, he has a gun,” Mari pointed out on the screen, the not so carefully concealed gun under the guy's waistband. “These are definitely our guys.”

“But is tanner there?” Ian asked, they had found a picture of him that was confirmed by Matthew while he was alive and if they found him at the pizza place, that would be a perfect way to kickstart their plan.

As Friday comes closer, they get ready to enact their plan. They load themselves up with weapons, making sure to also put on their bulletproof vests, and keep everything as hidden as possible as they pile into the car. They arrive just on time to see a big group of the guys enters the pizza place. It's Joven, that notices one of the guys looks very familiar. Anthony brings up the picture of Tanner and Joven confirms it, it looks like the guy they were looking for is here. For a Friday night, the streets in this area are unusually empty and the group uses that for an advantage. With their Baklava’s covering half of their faces, the group who were gonna storm the place (comprised of Shane, Noah, Wes, Flitz, and Boze) waited for the right moment.

They waited patiently until everyone seems to have pizza in front of them and are deep in conversation. And just like the previous nights, the lady who seems to own the place closes up. She closes the blinds and flips the sign on the door. Not long after she cleans up, her store now appearing actually closed with the windows covered, she finally leaves. The lookout crew, composed of Mari and Anthony, on different roofs with good angles to view the entrance and back exit, quickly let the group know when the old lady is far enough down the next block.

The lady never locked the front door, which technically makes sense seeing as anyone who tried to go in and vandalize or steal would walk in on a bunch of armed criminals, but it still worked heavily in their favor since they wouldn’t need to use the explosives to get in, giving them a bigger advantage in the surprise department.

Shane and his crew get ready to enter. They are all wearing armor under their clothes and probably all appear like a buff motorcycle gang. They were also all wearing beanies and as they got ready to enter, they put on their Bandanna’s to cover the lower halves of their face (can’t have anyone accidentally escaping with a clear look at their faces, not to mention if there were secret cameras).

The ensuing fight doesn’t end up being very lengthy, especially with things being in favor of Smosh. There were 8 guys in the pizza shop, including their target, and killing the 7 men didn’t take all that long though it didn’t happen without injury. While Boze got a shot to the side, her vest protected her, and she didn’t get more than a bruise.  Shane however, had a bullet tear through his arm to the other side, leaving a bloody gash in the muscle their but not hitting anything major. While Shane cuts a strip from the bottom of his shirt to cover up his arm wound, the rest of the group are all focusing their attention on the man they had identified asTanner. He definitely looked upset about the dead bodies of his group around him, but something about the look on his face made it seem like he was more upset he had no back up then upset they were dead.

Seeing as he was clearly outnumbered, especially when Shane returned to the group while pointing his gun with his good hand, he dropped the gun on the floor and kicked it toward them, arms up as if in defeat. But the expression on his face never reads as scared. Maybe annoyed, pissed even, but not scared.

“I suppose you think you have Matthias, now don’t you? That you’ve taken down Hi5?” He says almost mockingly and it takes everyone off guard a little bit, and Boze is the first to comprehend what’s going on.

“Oh, no we don’t think your Matthias. We know who you are Tanner.” Boze says simply, smiling.

The smile drops away from Tanner's face, the blood as well, and it takes him a moment before he half whispers incredulously, “how the fuck, do you know who I am???”

“Let’s say, an old friend helped us out.” Wes supplied, just as Lasercorn and Joven arrived.

Now disarmed and shaken, the two easily tie up, blindfold and gag tanner, the man barely put up a fight, but anyone could tell from the cold look on his face that the man was gonna be anything but cooperative. The two throw him in the back of the van that Damien is waiting in outside the pizza place and Shane joins them in the van as they drive off, back to the warehouse. Shane hadn’t wanted to go with them, but Boze had insisted, so Damien could take a look at his arm right away.

What remained of the group didn’t stay very long, they waited for Courtney, Olivia, Sohinki and Keith. While waiting, they quickly moved the bodies into the back room, the same room that they had had a meeting with Matthias in, stacking the bodies in the back behind some bodies. When the 4 arrived, their job was to make it look like the brawl hadn’t happened. See they didn’t want anything to look suspicious the next morning when the lady arrived. If they were lucky, it would take the lady at least a day to find the bodies hidden in the storeroom, but they intended them to find them. The wanted Matthias to know that his men were dead and his second in command was likely kidnapped.

The cleanup crew took about an hour to finish up, cleaning up all the blood, collecting any bullets or gun casings, and putting all the tables back in place and chairs up on it. They even rearranged the boxes in the back to better hide the bodies. When they were finally done, they headed back in a car along with Mari and Anthony and the 6 celebrated their success.

Step one was complete.

…

Shane sat quietly, thoughtfully looking out into the distance as Damien sewed him up. They could both hear the hustle and bustle of the triumphant celebrations in the room nearby, but neither were really paying attention. Both seemed content to sit in silence in the medical room, Though Shane would have been more content if a needle wasn’t going in and out of his arm.

As Damien finished up the last stitch, something caught his eye on Shane’s arm and the man laughed. Shane shot him a quizzical look, so Damien elaborated. “I can see the scar, or should I say scars, from when you stapled your wound shut.”

Shane laughed a little as well from the memory, “Hey it was effective. The gash wouldn’t of closed up properly if I hadn’t.”

“No, it wasn’t. If you had come straight to me I could have sewed it and it would have set right. Now you have an uneven and raised scar. Not to mention all the little holes from the staples were infected, because the staples were dirty, and I had to clean you up and stitch you up anyway when you came by a week later.”

Both men cracked up at the memory.

When they settled down, there was another moment of comfortable silence as Damien wrapped up Shane’s arm. When he was done, he looked at Shane for a moment before speaking, “You know, I’m really glad you came back.”

“I’m really glad too,” Shane said softly as the two shared a meaningful look.

After a moment Damien shakes his head to get back to his senses and walks away to disinfect his tools and dispose of the bloody gauze. Shane just looks down at his bandages.

The moment, or whatever that had been, had passed.

…

Mari was going insane.

She had spent a lot of the two weeks in preparation for step one of their plan, stuck in the warehouse with the rest of the original 6. And though she wasn’t alone, and the group had plenty to do, she wanted nothing more than to be with Olivia or Courtney, off stealing things and killing people and trailing people and whatever else she would be doing right now. Getting to sit on that roof during the ambush was the most exhilarating fun she had had since the Mathew incident. When the next day she found herself, taking inventory in their massive storeroom and getting together some explosives for Wes’s next mission she held on to the wind in her hair and the biting cold cement she had leaned against in her perch.

During the next few days, she did get to help interrogate their new prisoner, but he was a whole different problem. If Mathew was scared and angry, Tanner was cold and calculating. Nothing anything any of them did, could get the man to tell them anything. They tried beating him up, waterboarding him, burning him and the most they got out of him was a grunt or a hiss of pain. The only time they got any words out of him was when the resorted to threatening his life, but he would always say the same things, “Go ahead and kill me, and then watch as Matthias destroys everything you love.”

They suspected that this was not the first-time tanner had been captured and tortured. While at first, he was worried that they knew who he was, it didn’t take him long to be unbothered again. While Lasercorn had pitched an idea to drive him crazy by locking him in a dark room with loud annoying music or sounds for days, Mari just agreed to anything without having any faith.

It felt to her like they had lost when in reality the war was far from over. She felt so confined and hopeless she didn’t know what to do with herself. When she was at the condo, she found herself spending a lot of her time on the balcony or the roof, wishing she could jump and soar through the air and do whatever she wanted.

Of course, that was ridiculous, but she was letting her imagination run wild. It wasn’t like she had much else to do.


	20. Unexpected Development

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane and Damien spend more one on one time and Mari and Wes get interrupted.

Shane spent most of the next week helping Damien around the warehouse. While his cut hadn’t been that deep, it was deep enough that it was really painful to hold up a gun to shoot it accurately since that was 80% of the job, Damien had ordered him to take it easy for at least a week.

So, he chilled around the warehouse, hanging out with whoever was free and being Damien’s assistant when someone got hurt. Every time he helped Damien, he was reminded of getting stitched up only a few days prior. There had been a moment, however brief when Shane had felt something. Though he wasn’t sure exactly what he had felt, he knew he was looking at Damien differently.

He found himself drawn to his old friend more than before. A day after thinking about this, he realized that maybe this wasn’t a new feeling, but actually something he had been feeling for a while.

Now Damien shook him out of his thoughts, “Hello?”

Shane shook his head and looked up at the man of his thoughts. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said, you should still take it easy, but if most of the pain is gone, you can go back to using your gun, just try not to hold your arm up too long or try and lift it above your head for at least another week.” Damien continued.

“What about other activities?” Shane asked with a smirk on his face.

“And what kind of activities are you suggesting? Damien asked, and Shane knew that Damien was fully aware of what he was suggesting.

“sex,” Shane said bluntly, and Damien couldn’t help but laugh.

“Whatever you do, take it easy on that arm,” Damien responded when he calmed down, and they were looking at each other again.

“I will,” Shane said, and he felt it happening again. They looked into each other’s eyes and Shane decided he wasn’t gonna let it pass this time.

He leaned forward across the small gap on the couch between them and Damien, realizing what was happening, leaned in as well.

Shane’s eyes slipped closed as he kissed him. As he kissed his best friend. Well now probably more than his friend. And he wouldn’t change it for the world.

…

Mari and Wes were close at the moment. Very close. Their naked sweaty bodies moving together quickly as Wes moved in an out of her. They hadn’t even bothered to close the curtain on the huge floor to ceiling windows and Mari didn’t give a shit. She hoped her neighbors were enjoying the show.

Wes had come home wanting to release some steam and Mari, having been cooped up at home all day, gladly indulged him.

“f-fuck Wes” Mari moaned out, her head arching backward, she could feel the knot in her stomach tighten, she was close.

Suddenly they were interrupted by the door slamming open, “Horndogs!” Lasercorn yelled over the moans to get their attention. They stopped quickly, turning to him annoyed and panting. “Noah and Olivia are fucking missing!” He said quickly then walked away, presumably to gather someone else.

Mari and Wes looked at each other, completely shocked, and stayed like that panting for a moment before ripping apart from one another and yanking on their clothes. They moved as quickly as they could, and Mari did her best to ignore the feeling of panic that was creeping in. As soon as she was dressed she grabbed the gun in her bedside table and stuck it under her belt as well as a pocket knife. Seeing as Wes already had a knife in his pocket, she just tossed him a handgun to also arm himself as they ran from the room.

They ran into the Livingroom where Ian, Lasercorn, and Sohinki were waiting and the 5 all ran to the garage and piled in the car as Lasercorn caught them up to speed. Noah and Olivia had left their apartment to grab some more chips from their local corner store. When 30 minutes passed, and they hadn’t returned from the 5-minute walk, Courtney tried calling both of them, but their phones were off. Apparently, Shane had run to the store to figure out what had gone on, but the guy at the cash register said no one of that description had been there. The cars were still in the garage, so something had to be up.

When they arrived at Shane’s gang’s house they walked into quite a dramatic scene. Shane was yelling at someone on the phone, Courtney was pacing angrily near Shane, worry etched into her face. Keith wasn’t in the Livingroom, but they could hear some shuffling in the next room, which was probably Keith.

It almost took Courtney a solid minute to realize they had entered, she broke her stride and walked over to them on the other side of the room while Shane continued his heated conversation. “He’s yelling at the owner of the Chinese restaurant across the street from the corner store. Apparently, they never replaced their security cameras after they got ruined during that robbery last month.” Courtney says quickly, “We are just trying to see if we can find some evidence of where they went.”

“Well, we know who took them,” Keith says walking into the room.

Shane finally finished yelling at the poor Asian lady, chimed in while walking over to them, “Usually I would say that we don’t actually know, but even I’m not that stupid.”

“Did you guys check all the stores security cameras?” Ian asked, looking down at his phone and likely texting Anthony.

“Well, there’s only 2 places on that corner that could have gotten a good shot. The Chinese restaurant and the jewelry store. I was just on the phone with Joven and he hacked into their footage and theirs no shots pointed in the right direction. All it tells us is they didn’t go past the corner store and keep walking.” Keith says defeatedly.

Courtney looks up, “I told you to ask Joven to check the salon cameras.”

“I told you they don’t have any cameras,” Keith said dismissing Courtney’s annoyance.

“I went their 3 days ago for a haircut and they have new cameras,” Courtney says with a more annoyance in her voice.

“I passed by yesterday and I didn’t see any.” Keith continues

“They are super small! And probably pretty grainy, but they exist, and they are wireless.” She turns away from Keith, clearly angry he ignored her, “Someone gets Joven on the phone!”

The next moment all of them are huddled around Shane’s laptop, watching Joven as he furiously clicked and typed away. It didn’t take him long, he had gotten pretty damn good at computers over the past year. “Ok, I’m connected. I’m gonna share my screen, so we can all scan the footage.”

They all watched in silence. Scanning the faces of the people walking by. It's Courtney who spots them first, “There they are! They made it to the store!” The group all watched tensely, waiting for them to exit the store so they had at least a general direction.

They are watching for a suspiciously long period of time when suddenly Keith speaks, “Isn’t that Shane? Oh my god is this when you went looking for them?”

“Oh shit, they never left the store…” Shane says, and before Mari can even think about what that meant, the entire group was in motion. Someone said told Joven where to meet them and closed the laptop while the rest of the group headed out the door.

They had to look intimidating, a group of scarred and pierced tough looking people angrily fast walking down the street. They didn’t exactly look inviting. Which is probably why when the barged into the store the man behind the counter looked scared out of his mind.  He tried in vain to get himself together. “Can I help y-“

“Where the fuck are they?!” Courtney interrupted, slamming her hands on the counter, causing the poor man to jump.

The man tried to respond, “I-I don’t know w-what your-“

“Cut the shit!” Wes stopped him, stepping up next to Courtney, using her body to block the gun he pulled out from the front of the shop, “We know they came in and never came out, and you lied to our friend about them coming in here. So, either you talk, or you die. We don’t have time for negotiations.”

The man crumpled like a piece of paper in the rain. He gave up and started blabbing and crying “They t-told me not to say anything or they would destroy my store! This is my whole life I couldn’t let them d-“

Mari was done caring before he started talking, he moved up next to Courtney on the other side and interrupted them, “Where did they go?”

“I overheard something about them taking them to the meeting place? I don’t know where it is though, please don’t hurt me!”

At that, something clicked in Ian’s head, “I think we all know where that is.”

They all practically sprinted back to the house and got into two cars. They called for the rest of the group to meet them at the pizza place, and they set off.

Ian, as an afterthought, texted Anthony to go to the warehouses instead. Their hostage might be the best way for this to end well.


	21. Quick "thinking"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go to find their friends, and Lasercorn has a mind of his own.

It wasn’t a Friday, though they were fairly certain after last time their Friday meetings would be held elsewhere. When they pulled up, the pizza place had been closed for a little while, though the light was still on and they could hear the old lady who ran the store bustling around cleaning up.

They were not in the mood for nuance or sneaking around so Mari made her way to the front of the group and with one swift kick to the lock the door snapped open with a crack. They stormed in, the old lady looking startled but more annoyed than scared.

Joven, who had already arrived, stayed at the front, closing the door behind them and holding a gun up to the old lady’s head, who looked at him warily, but then went back to loading the napkin dispensers.

Everyone else stormed into the back room, guns already out, ready to shoot whoever they had to. They were not ready, however, for what they saw. The room was deserted, save for the single seat in the middle of the room, where none other than Matthias himself was lounging.

Before anyone could react, Matthias held up his phone screen, “I wouldn’t move if I were you.” He said calmly, taking a sip of the cup of coffee he was nursing, “I’m on the phone with one of my men, who will kill your friends before I can even get the word, ‘shoot’ out.”

Everyone froze, though all of their guns were still pointed at him, no one dared take another step.

“Smart. Now put those things away” Matthias said, taking another drink from his cup, “I’m not going to talk with all those guns pointed at my face.”

Everyone shot a look at Ian, who nodded, so everyone lowered their guns to their sides still keeping their fingers on the trigger.

Matthias took another drink from his cup before continuing. “I’m gonna give you an address. You're going to bring tanner to the address, and we will bring your 2 little spies. Be there tonight at midnight or, we kill them and leave their bodies there for you to discover.” He said simply.

“And how are we supposed to believe this isn’t a trap?” Ian asked his jaw tense.

“Believe whatever you want. But if you want your friends alive, you don’t have much of a choice.” With that, Matthias pulled out a small slip of paper and held it out to the group. After a moment, its Keith who breaks from the group a few steps to grab it, handing it to Ian. “Now leave. You only have 2 and a half hours to get there, so you better go get tanner from whatever interrogation room you tied him up in.”

After a tense moment of staring, Ian gestured for the group to start exiting, they moved slowly, not putting away their guns till someone checked the street to make sure the way was clear.

Once in the cars, now there was 3, someone caught Joven up to speed on what had happened in the back room while he was keeping watch. They sat in the cars waiting for the first one in the line, Ian’s car, to lead the way.  After a few moments, Ian texted the group with a simple “follow me. we aren’t going to the warehouse.”

When the procession arrived at their destination, everyone recognized it immediately. It was the alleyway behind their old warehouse. Ian had led them there as a precaution.

Ian wasn’t stupid, he knew if they went back to the warehouse, Matthias would have someone follow him. Luckily Anthony had already been there, so he had Anthony throw tanner into the trunk of one of the cars and meet them there. They all watched as Anthony, dragged the broken and tattered clothed man out of the trunk, allowing him to fall onto the ground, with his arms tied up so he couldn’t even catch himself.

He didn’t even attempt to move, just laid there on the damp dirty cement of the alley. Wes moved forward and together, he and Anthony, yanked the man to his feet, mostly supporting him as they moved him toward the other cars. Tanner moved his legs just enough, so he was being only half dragged, but barely tried to support himself. They stopped in front of the group and Anthony cleared his throat.

“While I was waiting to hear what was going on, I decided to look through this guy’s phone some more. And I found something that you’ll be interested to hear Mari.” Anthony said, and Mari raised an eyebrow. “It looks like we found our rich asshole of a client.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Wes asked, looking at the pathetic stone-faced man between them.”

“His phone was used to send the original emails between him and Matt Raub that recruited us in the first place. He clearly got a burner for all the calls, but the emails are from an account he made on this phone. He used a few proxies, so we couldn’t trace it to the phones IP or its owner.”

The group took a moment to take in what they had learned. The guy who had made hi5 turn against them was the second in command no less. Mari looked at him and he was smirking. He didn’t even bother to defend himself. He was proud.

Mari stepped forward up to him and Anthony and Wes let him go, taking a few steps away from him to avoid getting hit as well. He stumbled for a moment and almost pitched over but managed to steady himself, still smirking right at her. “Care to explain yourself?” she asked in a deep angry voice.

“Why not. Let’s see…” He pretended to think about what had happened, clearly enjoying the moment. “Matthias was going to leave you alone. A small group that had completely disrespected him. Did you know you’re the first group that didn’t do what he asked for? It was for such a stupid reason as well, avoiding conflict, ugh…” he rolled his eyes at the concept, “He said he actually respected you guys sticking to your principles. That’s so boring though. Principles. So, I did the only thing I knew would start an all-out war. I made you kill his brother. I mean the money was nothing because once we destroyed you, we would get everything you had from your warehouse and have way more than I spent.”

“You hired Matthew knowing he would alert us didn’t you…” Wes said suspiciously.

“The man was so dumb, I knew the plan would work. The fact that he managed to contact us was even better, Matthias was planning your end before dinner.” He smiled.

Mari didn’t give him much warning, she swung back and punched him in the jaw. The force of the blow knocking him to the ground. When she heard him chuckling, she added a kick to his stomach, effectively ending the chuckle with a pained grunt.

She turned to the group that had watched that whole scene. “Can we go now? I want this to be over with.”

…

They arrived at the big empty abandoned warehouse 30 minutes before midnight. They entered slowly, everyone’s guns drawn, even Lasercorn and Flitz who were leading tanner near the back. They didn’t have to go too far into the warehouse before they saw the other group.

Matthias definitely had way more people then they did. Their 13 people didn’t look much against what must have been 30-40 people taking up a good portion of the back section of the warehouse. They didn’t let themselves be intimidated by it though. Being a small group against the odds hadn’t hurt them yet.

They stop a good 20 feet away, spreading out a bit. Lasercorn notices that Olivia and Noah are tied together back to back on the floor behind Matthias who is at the front of the group. At the sight of them, Matthias and someone else yanks the two to their feet and pulls them after him so they have to awkwardly shuffle along, and Matthias stops a halfway between the two groups and waits.

Mari takes not of Olivia and Noah. Noah has a black eye and Olivia has a red bruise forming on the side of her neck, but otherwise, she can’t see anything else wrong with them and it gives Mari a breath of relief.

Ian followed Matthias’s lead and grabbed Tanner by the hair, yanking him forward away from Lasercorn and Flitz to stand in between the two groups in front of Matthias. Both men stand a foot away from each other, holding tight to their hostages, and staring the other man down, waiting for the other man to make the first move.

Time slowed for a moment as Ian and Matthias eyed each other. Lasercorn, from his position in the back, was getting impatient. Both men were trying to make sure they got their people back unharmed. Not that it really mattered. Everyone knew the second the people were safely on the right side, the shooting would start. Harm was inevitable. Suddenly Lasercorn looked up. He was in a perfect position. Far enough in the back that no one on the other side would notice yet right between a gap of the people in front of him. He was a damn good shot.

He waited until Matthias finally roughly shoved Noah and Olivia toward Ian, while Ian shoved tanner. Then, Lasercorn stopped thinking, not that that ever helped him much anyway and lifted his arm with his ready gun. Before anyone could react, Lasercorn shot Matthias through the head.

And then, came the chaos.


	22. The aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some actual quick thinking and a mad dash to the hospital.

Thinking back, maybe Lasercorn could have thought through his plan a little further. Now as he drove as fast as he could without crashing into the cars in front of him around him, he realized that there might have been some less-extreme ways they could have won that battle. Then again, no one feared him for being rational.

After he had shot Matthias through the head, it took a moment for the people on the other side to react, in that moment Ian, pushed the still tied up Noah and Olivia into Damien’s (who had been standing right behind him) waiting arms, who then pulled them behind a pillar as the shooting began.

The smosh group had been lucky in the placement. While Hi5 had positioned themselves next to a safe and quick exit in the door and windows behind them, there weren’t many places to hide behind in the open space, while smosh had plenty of pillars to hide behind as they picked off the enraged grieving lackeys.

Lasercorn had been lucky enough to duck behind a pillar and still witness Ian, in all his badassery, use Matthias’s body as a shield as he shot tanner, then three men before dropping the body and then ducking behind a pillar.

Damien had cut the zip ties that had connected the two and then made sure that they didn’t have any major injuries as soon as he could. They were still very close to the action and Lasercorn watched as he shot a few people who tried to get closer.

The injuries were inevitable, Ian’s torn shoulder by a man who had gotten too close with a knife, Flitz’s probable concussion from a man throwing a cinderblock at his head (what had Matthias been feeding his men? Shit!), and even the bullet wound in Boze’s arm, but they were winning. Most of hi5 lay on the ground dead. If Damien had stayed behind his pillar, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.

But he watched Flitz fall and couldn’t help himself, he handed his gun to Noah and dived to grab the taller man and pull him behind a pillar. Lasercorn didn’t have a chance to warn him but watched as Damien got shot and collapsed onto Flitz’s unconscious body.

A switch flipped and suddenly everyone was just unloading their bullets onto the remaining people alive. When everyone from hi5 was dead or had escaped, Shane was the first one to Damien’s body. “HE’S BREATHING!” Shane’s voice echoed.

At the prospect that he might not be dead, Ian went into boss mode, “Lasercorn, drive him and Shane to the hospital, tell them that he collapsed on your doorstep like that. Since you’re the only ones here not injured or covered in someone else’s blood, they’ll believe you. We will take care of everyone else at the warehouse, keep us posted.”

And that was how Lasercorn got here, weaving through traffic, way too fast, on the highway, while Shane held pressure to the wound and held onto Damien for dear life. The 30-minute drive took 10 minutes at their breakneck speed and they burst in the emergency room carrying Damien causing quite a few heads to turn. Damien is quickly taken away on the stretcher and a police officer and a doctor asks them what happens, Lasercorn lets Shane talk. “we found him on our doorstep like that. He said he was shot but didn’t have a chance to explain before he passed out. We don’t live far so we drove here as fast as we could.” Shane said with just the right amount of genuineness and urgency, he would have been a good actor.

Ian was right, the police officers believed them, and they weren’t asked any further questions. They went to the waiting room and spent 5 hours, just pretty much waiting. After they cleaned up, Courtney, Keith, Noah, and Olivia joined them. The 6 mostly sat in silence, checking on updates from the rest of the group in the group chat or just sitting on their phones, waiting for the doctor to come in.

“Anyone here for Damien Haas?” A small lady with bright red hair and a lab coat asked loudly to the filled waiting room, and all of them jumped up. “There you are,” She said making her way over to them, and they met her halfway. “He is out of surgery, and it looks like he is gonna be fine. He is still asleep now, and it will likely be a while before anyone can see him. It looks like you guys have been here all night. I recommend most of you guys go home and get some sleep and come back later. We can call you if anything happens.”

“I’m gonna stay, even if they go, in case he wakes up,” Shane said quickly, and the doctor nodded before heading on her way with a promise to update him.

“We’ll stay with you.” Olivia tried, but Shane could see how exhausted she was, leaning most of her wait on Courtney, the same way Noah was doing to Keith.

“You both know you need some rest. I’ll be fine, you 5 should go home. I’ll call you if anything happens, but you clearly need sleep.” Shane argued, and Olivia didn’t try to defend herself.

Lasercorn however did, “Sleep is for the goddamn weak. If you think I’m leaving you here by yourself, you're sadly mistaken.”

Courtney and Keith, end up taking Noah and Olivia home without too much resistance. Even though Shane keeps insisting he is fine and Lasercorn should go, Lasercorn stays with him. When a nurse walks in asking if anyone is named Shane Topp, its Lasercorn who has to shake Shane, who had fallen asleep.

“You’re here for Damien, right?” She asked, and Shane nodded. “He just woke up and he asked to see you. You can go in there for a few minutes, but not too long because he needs to rest.” The nurse instructed.

Shane nodded again and followed the nurse through the halls. He was led into Damien’s room, who smiled at him weakly from the bed. The nurse left them with the promise that she would be back soon and closed the door behind her.

Shane quickly pulled up a chair and reached out, Damien immediately holding the hand offered to him.

“how are you feeling?” Shane finally asked.

“never better. I think I might try and run a marathon after this.”

“You seem in pretty good shape. I think you could pull it off.”

“Maybe,” Damien said, chuckling, “My question is how did you pull it off. And by that, I mean get me here. getting shot in the chest is pretty time sensitive stuff there”

“Lasercorn drove like a madman. The GPS said it would take 30 minutes and we got here in 10.”

“Wow. And the car’s still in one piece?”

“Barely. We told the cop in the emergency room what happened by the way.”

“What?”

“we told him how you showed up at my and Lasercorn’s door like this and couldn’t tell us what happened before you passed out.” Shane said pointedly, and Damien got it immediately, “Do you remember what happened?”

Damien nodded and thought for a moment before responding. “I got captured by the notorious gang, called hi5. In my attempt to escape while a gang fight was going on, I got shot and just barely made it to my friends’ doorstep.” Damien said, and Shane admired his quick thinking. “Killing two birds with one stone.”

They were interrupted by a light knocking on the door followed by the nurse. “You can come back later, but right now he needs his rest.”

“You should go home and get some sleep,” Damien said agreeing with the nurse.

“She meant you,” Shane said, laughing and standing up, reluctantly letting go of Damien’s hand.

“Maybe, but you’re the one who won’t listen. Please go home. I have my phone, I’ll call you later to come back.” Damien pleaded.

“You promise?” Shane said, heading toward the door.

“If you were close enough I would pinky promise.”

“Mental pinky promise?”

“Mental pinky promise”

…

Mari is surprised how, a shot to the arm, something so scary back when it had happened to Mari, barely was a problem to Boze. The woman took the bullet out of her own arm before having Joven stitch it up, like the badass she was. When Mari asked how she had stayed so calm, Boze had shrugged like it was nothing.

Ian’s cut seemed a little serious but with Boze keeping an eye on him, Joven was able to clean and stitch him up too. Flitz woke up not too long after they arrived home, and it wasn’t hard keeping him awake that night, seeing as no one was going to bed until they heard about Damien.

At around 6 in the morning, they get a call from Courtney, saying that Damien was out of surgery and going to be ok. That was when they truly celebrated. They had made it through with all the people they had gotten into this mess with.

They had won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is almost over and I'm actually sad... I mean this is one of the first stories I posted back in April of this year.   
> Soon I'm going to be premiering a new story I've been working on and I'm really excited to see how you guys like it!


	23. Down the line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anthony looks back on the years past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say how sad I am that Defy Media is closing their Beverly Hills office and smosh/smosh games might be ending or moving? Like lasercorns video actually made me cry. And Mari made a post on insta about it, which made me hopeful because it sounds like they are planning to continue, maybe with another company? I just hope so. I don't know what I'll do if they stop completely :(
> 
> But yeah also this is the last chapter and I'm also sad about that, but look forward to a new fic in the next few days!

Anthony couldn’t sleep. He slipped silently out of bed, taking a moment to look back at Ian, before slipping out of the room. He found himself on the balcony, a place he liked to come to think. And for some reason, his head was full of thoughts tonight.

It had been a few years since the fight against Hi5, and now, it seems so small in the grand scheme of things. They ended up also having to fight a few allied groups and some other gangs who didn’t like the new power structure.

None of them got very far, that’s for sure.

They had definitely expanded since then, their numbers rivaling Matthias’s numbers at his peak.  Now they had several warehouses all over Los Santos and they were raking it in. Ian even had the bright idea to start a legitimate business to keep their illegitimate businesses further under wraps.

Even with the huge expansion, they still had their core 15 at the top. They didn’t quite spend all the time they used to together since Ian had everyone helping to manage all the aspects of their new business. Despite not seeing everyone every day, they still made time every few weeks to all get together as a group for fun as a break from work.

One of the few things that hadn’t changed, was the core six. They still all lived together in their huge condo with a Beautiful view of the city. Now, as Anthony looked out at the great nighttime view, from the balcony, he remembered all those years ago, when they came to Los Santos.

The six of them had taken what they could from the families that had given them nothing and took a chance on a city that could have destroyed them. Their decision to steal their way across the country, something that he had been so worried about at first, is the reason they were now where they were.

They were majorly successful, on the top of the food chain, and most of all happy. What more could a guy ask for?

“Earth to Anthony?” Anthony jumped and turned to see someone he is glad he never had to ask for standing there by the door to the balcony.

“You didn’t have to sneak up on me like that,” Anthony said, leaning against the railing, facing Ian.

“I didn’t. I actually called your name a few times before I stepped out here.” Ian laughed.

“Oh, yeah sorry, I was lost in thought.” He responded, gesturing toward the lights of the city below.

“I turned to move closer to you and you weren’t there.” Ian said, “Everything ok?”

“Yeah. I just was feeling a little sentimental. Came out here to think about stuff. It’s a really good place to think.” Anthony said, turning to look back at the view.

“It is beautiful…” Ian agreed, walking over to stand next to Anthony, and the two were silent for a few minutes as they started out at the night together. Anthony isn’t sure when they did, but at some point, he slipped his hand into Ian’s.

“I thought we were all going to bed at a decent hour tonight?” They both turn to see Mari, their hands separating, with her arms crossed at the entrance to the balcony, Lasercorn standing behind her.

“We are” Ian assured her as she and Lasercorn stepped out to them.

“You do realize its one in the morning, right?” Lasercorn countered

“well I only came out here to bring Anthony back to bed.” Ian tried.

“All you did is come out here and stand with me,” Anthony smirked.

“What the hell are you guys all doing up??? We have a super early meeting tomorrow!” They turn to see Sohinki who walks over to join them, pulling the robe he has on tighter around him as he steps outside.

“Are you cold?” Lasercorn asked.

“You're ignoring my question, but yes,” Sohinki said, and before he can protest, Lasercorn is pulling him in and wrapping his arms around the smaller man. Honestly, he isn’t sure he wants to protest.

“Most of us are out here, in fact, to get everyone back in bed,” Ian says.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like anyone is doing a very good job.” Sohinki griped, leaning further into Lasercorn’s arms.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re exactly rushing us inside either,” Anthony noted.

“Is this some secret meeting I wasn’t invited too?” they turn to see the last one, Joven, emerge onto the balcony, looking a little hurt.

“Actually, we are all out here to make everyone go back inside to go to bed,” Lasercorn said matter-of-factly.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone is being very successful seeing as everyone who lives in this house is on the balcony now,” Joven noted.

“Your right, I think its time we actually go inside and go to bed rather than talk about it,” Mari said, and she grabbed Joven’s arm and started pulling him toward the house.

“But I just got here!” Joven protested, but Mari ignored him and pulled him back inside toward the bedrooms.

“Yeah, I’m going in too,” Lasercorn said, and he started walking inside, dragging Sohinki, who was still in his arms, with him.

Now it was just Ian and Anthony again. Alone. “It's our turn,” Ian said softly, holding out his hand. Anthony took one more look out at the city below and the vast sky above. Then he turned back and took Ian’s hand. Allowing the man to lead him back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its so short but im happy with the ending and i hope you are too!

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think of the story and give me some ideas for things you wanna see. While I have the story outlined, there are still some things I need to add in there. Any suggestions help!


End file.
